Ottawa ? They remembered Christopher Wasser as a son, a brother, a friend and, foremost, a Marine who died for his country.

Saturday morning nearly 1,000 people gathered in the Ottawa University Chapel to pay tribute to Wasser, a 21-year-old lance corporal who was killed April 8 by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

“There is no greater love than this, for a man who will willingly lay down his life for those he loved,” said the Rev. Kent Mathews, of Westminister Presbyterian Church, paraphrasing a Bible verse.

Wasser joined the Marines after graduating from Ottawa High School in 2001, began basic training on Sept. 11, the day of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., and completed that training on Dec. 7, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, noted the Rev. Henry Roberts Jr., who presided over the service with Mathews.

“He was made to be a Marine,” said Roberts, also a pastor at Westminister. “He died doing what he was called to do. There were no regrets; he knew the consequences.”

Wasser’s flag-draped casket was at the front of the chapel during the service. Flags of America’s allies hung above the pews on both sides of the sanctuary. In the chapel’s lobby, there were two tables of photographs of Wasser, depicting his growth from a boy born to parents Scott and Candy Wasser to more recent photographs of him as a Marine wearing desert camouflage uniforms.

Roberts knew Wasser as a boy who could be mischievous at times.

“While he taunted and teased his siblings in his high school days, he was still protectors of them,” Roberts said. “This big-brother concept was characteristic of him as a Marine.”

Wasser lived life on his own terms, said Kevin Honeycutt, one of Wasser’s close friends who spoke during the service.

“Chris lived more life in 21 years than most people do in 80,” Honeycutt said. “Godspeed Chris, and thanks for blazing a trail.”

Also speaking to the crowd was Wasser’s girlfriend, Stacy Dryden.

“I love Chris so much,” she said, her voice on the edge of breaking. “We had plans; they just weren’t to be. I know he will be looking down on me.”

Death raises many questions about why some survive and others do not, Mathews said. While God is in control, we have choices, he said.

“None of us will ever understand the mystery of suffering, nor should we,” Mathews said. “It was sinful people making a sinful choice to blow up a bomb as (Wasser) drove by. Sadly, some people use their freedom to hurt and kill.”

Obituary: Christopher Wasser Ottawa Marine killed in Iraq (4-10-04)

Roberts also addressed Wasser’s family, who sat at the front of the sanctuary.

“Be assured that our prayers and our thoughts are with you,” he said.

Wasser’s casket was carried out of the church by a Marine honor guard based in Kansas City, Mo. It was taken to Highland Cemetery for burial. Dozens of cars followed the hearse, driving through residential neighborhoods in southeast Ottawa where a few houses displayed American flags on their porches.