Charles Roop met his long-time girlfriend, Erin Pelton, when they were lab partners in chemistry class.
"When people asked how we met we would joke that 'we just had chemistry,'" he said.
She was an animal lover, and the couple had a dog and three cats together. Pelton, 24, graduated last year from UF with a degree in animal biology.
Roop said she had been working most recently on getting into veterinary school to pursue her dream of working in a mixed clinic with both small and large animals.
"She was a very strong person - smart, nice, trustworthy," Roop said. "She loved what she did."
Pelton and Roop's 4 1/2-year relationship ended abruptly Monday night when Pelton was hit by a car on Archer Road.
Pelton had just gotten off an RTS bus and was crossing at the back of a group of other pedestrians when she was hit, said Gainesville Police Department spokesman Keith Kameg.
Witnesses said the driver, whose blood test showed had not been drinking, was obeying the speed limit and tried to swerve out of the way. Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.
Officers responded to calls from witnesses at 6:19 p.m., and Pelton was pronounced dead after arriving at the new trauma unit of Shands at UF, Kameg said.
Kameg said this is the third traffic fatality of its kind this year.
"Unfortunately, this highlights an issue we have in this community," he said. "We have a lot of people and a lot of cars...trying to occupy the same space."
Roop said that even before the two became a couple, he'd found that Pelton was someone he could approach and talk with about anything.
"She was a very friendly person," he said.
Dr. Ray Sudjak worked with Pelton very closely for the past three and a half years at the Gainesville Animal Hospital on Sixth Avenue and said she'll be missed by everyone at the clinic.
"If I had a daughter, I'd want her to be just like her," he said. "She would have made a difference in the world...she would have been one hell of a vet."
