Oregon train hero remembered at Pebble Beach high school

Those who met the young man known as Tilly — one of the heroes from the Oregon train attack, who spent his high school years on the Monterey Peninsula — weren’t surprised to hear he was the fellow who did the right thing for a stranger.

That was his way, said people who knew Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche from his days at the elite Stevenson School in Pebble Beach. Tilly stepped forward, righted wrongs.

“That was just the kind of guy he was,” said his history teacher and soccer coach, Justin Bates.

Namkai-Meche was the 23-year-old man with a thick beard who on Friday came to the aid of two female teenagers, one black and one Muslim, as they were berated with racial slurs by another passenger on a Portland train.

The passenger fatally stabbed Namkai-Meche and Rick Best, 53, after both intervened, police said.

As the accused killer appeared in court Tuesday, Namkai-Meche’s broad smile and selflessness were recalled on the campus of Stevenson School, which he attended from 2009 to 2012.

A sign of thanks rests against a traffic light pole at a memorial outside the transit center in Portland, Ore. on Saturday, May 27, 2017. People stopped with flowers, candles, signs and painted rocks for two bystanders who were stabbed to death while trying to stop a man who was yelling anti-Muslim slurs and acting aggressively toward two young women, including one wearing a Muslim head covering, on a light-trail train in Portland. Suspect Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, was booked on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in the attack. less A sign of thanks rests against a traffic light pole at a memorial outside the transit center in Portland, Ore. on Saturday, May 27, 2017. People stopped with flowers, candles, signs and painted rocks for two ... more Photo: Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Photo: Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Oregon train hero remembered at Pebble Beach high school 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

“He was such a unique young man, so mature, even as a freshman,” Bates said. “He brought a worldly perspective. He didn’t just sit back in apathy when he heard something in class that rubbed him the wrong way.”

Namkai-Meche, who grew up in Ashland, Ore., left Stevenson in 2012 before completing his senior year and attended Reed College in Portland. He worked for a Portland consulting firm.

During his two years at Stevenson, he was active in student council, sports, wilderness programs and the campus radio station. He repeatedly made the honor roll, and his college admission tests placed him in the top 5 percent nationally.

“He saw wrongdoing on that train and decided to do something about it,” Bates said. “That he took that approach was the least surprising thing about him. That’s what people have been saying around here for several days.”

Namkai-Meche’s actions on the train have become the talk of the prep school, on campus and in online postings. On the alumni page on Facebook, he was praised for having “bravely intervened in (his) fellow passengers’ defense.”

School President Kevin Hicks plans to memorialize Namkai-Meche during the annual alumni gathering June 9-10.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com