A reception will be held Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Troy University’s Arboretum in memory of Niall McNellis, the 21-year-old Troy student who died Saturday in car wreck.

The three-car wreck near the Chilton and Autauga County line also claimed the lives of four Indiana high school students who were on their way home from spring break.

On Tuesday, friends and associates remembered McNellis as quiet and smart.

“He was with us in Scouts and we were friends of the family,” said Mark Salmon, who led McNellis’ Scout troop. “We remember him as being quiet and extremely smart.” McNellis was a student at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science before he transferred back to Charles Henderson high school where he graduated in 2007.

Kelsey Rogers, a CHHS graduate and a broadcast journalism and Spanish major at Troy, said McNellis was an avid learning. “I remember him being smart and always willing to learn something new,” Rogers said.

According to Alabama State Troopers, McNellis was killed when the vehicle he was driving crossed the median into oncoming traffic.

The investigation into the cause of Saturday’s wreck is on-going.