Deer Park family mourns daughter killed in Pa. crash

After two years at New York University, Kristin Green dropped out last year and told her parents her interests had changed.

Green, 20, had found a new passion: her work at the Apple store in Huntington Station.

"She went to NYU because I pushed her to go there," said her father, Michael Green, Wednesday. "And then, when she got the job at Apple, she looked me in the face and said, 'Dad, I went to NYU because of you.' "

In just over two years, she went from a greeter to a "genius," a position in which Green helped customers and mentored colleagues, her family said. "It was just so obvious how much she loved it," her father said.

Wednesday, those gathered at Green's Deer Park home described her as an upbeat person who loved her job and family.

"The twinkle in her eye never went away," said Bob Lewis, her uncle.

Green played the violin and performed in local theater productions, family members said. She finished near the top of her class at Deer Park High School, her family said.

Her brother, Sean, 17, said their family was very close. "We spent a lot of time together."

Michael Green says her first word as a baby - in a bit of foreshadowing - was "apple."

Tuesday, she headed to Pennsylvania with three co-workers. Just after 2 p.m. her mother, Joanne, said she got a text from her daughter saying she was in Philadelphia. The car she was in crashed about two hours later.

Green's death prompted an outpouring of messages on Facebook and Twitter. An Apple executive said in a statement the company was "deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker."

Green was to start classes at Suffolk County Community College on Monday. Instead, her family mourned her loss and considered ways to honor her. "I'm very lucky I had her as long as I had her," Michael Green said.