NORMAL - David Foster Wallace may have been the literary world's celebrity. But to his Illinois State University family, where he taught from 1993 to 2002, he was just "David."

That's how the author - who penned the 1,000-plus page "Infinite Jest" - wanted it, recalled former colleagues and students during a Saturday memorial service at ISU's Bone Student Center.

Wallace, 46, hung himself last month in his Claremont, Calif., home, after battling depression for most of his adult life.

"We share the world's grief" in Wallace's "abbreviated life," said Charlie Harris, mentioning memorials from California to Vancouver to New York. "But to most of us in this room, David also was a friend."

Harris, then-ISU English department chairman, hired Wallace in 1993. Two years later, "Infinite Jest" was published. Wallace also wrote several other novels, short story collections and essays.

The service drew more than 75 mourners, including his parents, Sally and Jim Wallace, of Champaign.

Bob McLaughlin, an ISU English professor, recalled assuming Wallace would be pompous, but finding the opposite to be true.

"As brilliant as he was, he always was eager to find what he could learn from others," said McLaughlin.

More than a dozen people spoke, including English professors Curtis White and Victoria Frenkel Harris and former students Lyn Bulgrin and Tim Feeney.

They shared stories of being in awe of Wallace's "under the radar" kindness, and his dogged determination not to let fame get in the way of daily living.

The service also featured remembrances mailed from famous writers such as Don DeLillo, Rick Moody and Dave Eggers.

The ISU English department has established the David Foster Wallace Memorial Reading Series and Award, which aims to bring writers to campus and to honor ISU students whose writing is noteworthy. For more information, call (309) 438-3653 or 438-7725.