Facing a standing-room-only crowd at the University Health Center, Jack Fontaine fought back tears as he talked about the death of his son nearly six years ago.

Fontaine and dozens of his family members and friends, along with top University and community representatives, gathered Friday for the dedication of the John Fontaine Jr. Center for Alcohol Awareness and Education.

The center is named after Jack’s son, John, who died in a car crash in Houston, on Dec. 2, 2000. John, 16 at the time, was thrown from the back seat and killed instantly when the car he was riding in hit a tree.

The driver had been drinking at a party earlier that night.

Jack, a Texas businessman who attended the University in the late 70′s, donated $2 million to create an alcohol education program he hopes will save parents from enduring the hardships his family faced.

Fontaine said he will consider the program effective “if we can stop one set of parents from having a phone call.”

John, whom his father described as “larger than life,” was a sophomore at Kinkaid High School in Houston.

“John’s favorite thing in life was the stage,” Jack said, remembering John’s frequent performances at local children’s hospitals. Fontaine said John had to be forced away from his young audience and back on the bus.

“John never outgrew the ability to be a kid, and he never looked past people,” Fontaine said.

Fontaine said his son would be happy with the memorial.

“John would love for us to give back to a community that has a chance to help kids,” Jack said.

Fontaine had not been to campus since he left in 1978 until his younger son, Harris – now a sophomore at the University – decided to visit in 2004.

Harris’ decision to enroll at the University sparked Jack’s move to give back to the school he said he always loved.

In 2004, Jack and his brother, George, sat down with University President Michael Adams for lunch.

“I had been solicited before,” Fontaine said about donating to the school. “Usually a piece of paper slides across the table and says here are 10 opportunities for you to get involved.”

He said he didn’t tell Adams at the lunch specifically what he had in mind but wrote him a letter soon after outlining his hopes for an alcohol education center.

His brother George also decided to donate money to the University for the creation of Terry College’s music business program.

His son’s death wasn’t the first time alcohol changed the course of Fontaine’s life. He said alcohol abuse played a role in his decision to drop out of the University.

“The unmanageability of my lack of separation of school and social was 100 percent of the reason why I didn’t graduate. It kills me that I couldn’t get through the University,” Fontaine said.

The Fontaine Center will take a three-pronged approach to reversing the alcohol culture on campus.

Erin English, an alcohol and other drug educator for the center, said the center will work in the areas of “prevention, intervention and counseling.”

English, one of the Center’s two full-time employees, focuses on prevention by teaching classes to groups she said are high risk.

English said the center’s preventative efforts also target first-year students through the University’s online alcohol education program. Additionally, she gives classes to University residents in dorms across campus.

English also teaches classes for students who have gone through the judicial process.

Mike Friedline, the center’s other full-time staffer, said most of the students he sees are not alcohol or drug addicts but do abuse one of the two.

“Most people come to me willing to make some sort of change and leave willing to make much more change than they were initially,” Friedline said.

Jean Chin, executive director of the University’s Health Center, said the center gives the University’s alcohol education efforts a “broader scope” than possible prior to Fontaine’s gift.

Fontaine said he hopes that the University center will inspire other colleges throughout the Southeast to start their own alcohol education programs.

“I wish this program would have been here 30 years ago,” he said.