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Bartok's body was found in the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial Dec. 19. Metropolitan Police officials have yet to determine the cause of death, and friends said they do not know what happened to Bartok after he left a bar Dec. 18 where he was celebrating the end of final exams.
With officials still investigating his mysterious disappearance and death, members of the GW community recounted their memories of the 26-year-old California native.
"He made everyone he talked to feel special," said Joseph Mastrosimone, a member of Bartok's Legal Research and Writing class. "Few people have that combination of a fabulous personality, great sense of humor and a brilliant mind."
Bartok's parents said Chris had numerous interests growing up ranging from cars to music to cooking. A classically trained pianist, Chris also loved cars, memorizing every aspect of every model.
"Whenever he was interested in something, he went after it 150 percent," said Carol DiNolfo, his mother. "He always went all the way and tried to become an expert."
Bartok, the son of two engineers, grew up in Morro Bay, Calif., about four hours south of San Francisco. Excelling in school from a young age, Bartok enrolled at the California Institute of Technology, one of the nation's top engineering schools.
While he earned exemplary grades at Caltech, he took a two-year break midway through school and worked at some Internet firms and took a cooking course at the Pasadena Culinary Institute, DiNolfo said.
After spending two weeks as a prep chef at a gourmet restaurant, his mother said Bartok realized the difficulty of being a chef and decided that he "just wanted to cook for himself and his friends."
He returned to Caltech and graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering and applied sciences in 2002. After encountering a tough job market and realizing an interest in the law, Bartok applied to GW's nationally-known patent law program.
