He was born in Winston-Salem and was a 2003 graduate of Chapel Hill High School and a senior at UNC-Asheville. He spent the fall of 2007 studying at the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana.

He served in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps during the 2005-06 school year. He participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Gulfport, Miss., and St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans, where he was made an honorary citizen.

He was a UNC-Asheville residential advisor and a trip supervisor in the UNC-Asheville Outdoors Program. He was a forest firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management in the summer of 2007. He was a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School and a certified wilderness first responder.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 3, at 2 p.m. at University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill. A campus memorial service is scheduled for today at 4 p.m. at the Stream Garden, located alongside University Heights at Zageir Hall at UNC-Asheville.

Survivors include his parents, Ralph and Carolyn Karpinos of Chapel Hill; his grandmother, Louise Arnold of Chapel Hill; and two brothers, Justin Karpinos of Nashville, Tenn., and Jonathan Karpinos of Chicago, Ill.

Memorial donations may be made to the UNC-Asheville Foundation to benefit the UNC-Asheville Outdoors Program or to the Student Global AIDS Campaign, CPO 800, Asheville, N.C. 28804.