Nathan Potter, the UW-Milwaukee student who was tragically murdered last summer, is being remembered by those who knew and loved him most.

“He never left anywhere without saying ‘Man I love ya,’” Nathan’s mother told the Journal Sentinel.

Last week, the very first Nathan Potter Heart Award and scholarship was awarded at Potter’s high school alma mater in Whitefish Bay.

Potter was shot in the Riverwest neighborhood over the summer by two men who had planned to rob a tavern, but lost their nerve. Potter was a UWM film student and former missionary.

According to the Journal Sentinel, Potter was a three-sport athlete and, what mattered most, a good friend.

“One of the last times I saw Nathan, he was showing me videos that he had made in his film classes at UWM,” Star Moss, a friend of Potter’s, was quoted as saying in the Journal Sentinel.

The men who murdered Potter both face up to 35 years in prison. Derek Thomas, 19, and Seandell Tyrie Jackson, 21, faced trial last week. Jackson was convicted last week.

“I know that he would just be so honored,” Denise Potter told the Journal Sentinel at the award ceremony honoring Nathan.

On Feb. 3, the UWM Student Association unanimously passed The Student Association Lost Peer Memorial Act. The act “promises a plaque that will be made in honor of (UWM victims of violence) and be placed near their memorial.”

Potter is one of the students who will be honored by the new act. Jontae Woodley, a second UWM student who was tragically murdered in the summer of 2009, will also be honored.

SA President Jay Burseth passed an executive order creating the Community and Safety Committee. The committee will be charged with the job to “create student-supported initiatives to decrease violence in the area.”