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Cameron Ringer's smile and engaging personality were infectious to friends and faculty at St. Pius X High School.

On Monday, that smiling face was imprinted on the T-shirts of hundreds of students and staff who remembered the 17-year-old senior during a memorial Mass.

Ringer's father, Dwight Ringer, said he was amazed by how many lives his son touched.

"He taught us a lot about how he cared about himself and how he cared about others," Dwight Ringer said. "Someday I hope to be as good of a person as he was."

Ringer died Sunday of injuries suffered Friday in a crash on Tramway Boulevard Northeast.

He was the passenger in a car driven by his friend Jeremy Hensley, 17, when a truck turned in front of them, police say.

Hensley, 17, was hospitalized but has been released.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesman John Walsh identified the other driver as Catherine Farrell. After police complete their investigation, the case will be forwarded to the District Attorney's Office to determine whether charges will be filed.

Ringer was born June 26, 1990. His family moved to Corrales from Chicago before he started ninth grade.

His father said he cherished each day of his son's life.

"We have 17 years of wonderful memories of a great kid who never gave us any problems. He was everything you can ask for in a child," Ringer said.

Throughout his four years at St. Pius, Ringer exhibited kindness and a playful humor that showed through his somewhat shy exterior, said Julia Huchmala, Ringer's advanced-placement English teacher.

"He was very low-key," she said. "He had a certain wit to him."

When he wrote, his personality and humor came out, Huchmala said.

Ringer wrote opinion pieces and news stories for the Oracle, St. Pius' student newspaper.

In a personal essay, he said he wanted to be a marine biologist or zoologist because he enjoyed animals.

Teachers say he was involved in track at one point, and he also liked to play Frisbee outside school.

Dominic Kollasch, Ringer's counselor at St. Pius, said the boy's effect on other people was clear after he was admitted to the hospital.

At one point, Kollasch said, more than 100 students were at the hospital to check on their friend and offer condolences to his family.

Kollasch said Ringer touched lives in every grade.

"He had many close friends," he said. "I haven't met or heard of anyone that didn't like him."

Kollasch said Ringer learned his selflessness from his parents, who were always involved in their son's life and made him the type of person he was.

"He had the respect of his teachers. He exuded respect for others," Kollasch said.

Faculty say Ringer's death brought the St. Pius community together and made everyone realize how fragile life really is.

"Unfortunately, when something like this happens, you realize how much every student is important and dear," Huchmala said. "And the students realize how much they mean to each other."

Ringer is survived by his father, Dwight Ringer; mother, Katie Ringer; sister, Kassi Ringer; and grandparents, Ralph and Virginia Ringer, and John and Ann Kovorick.