"Last year the boys bought these hideous orange and blue sneakers. They were convinced they could sell them," said Daniels, chairman of the counselor education program at the University of Florida, where the brothers were students. "They probably sold a good number, but I would guess they have many more left over."

Daniels, friends and family are keeping memories like these alive as they cope with the Gloucester brothers' sudden death in a single-car crash in Virginia on Interstate 95 this weekend. The two brothers were traveling back to Gainesville, Fla., after visiting their mother, Esther Marshall, in Gloucester when their car ran off the highway and crashed.

David was 39. Brian was 31.

The two are remembered for hosting many Gators' games at the home they shared, complete with barbecues and all of their friends. Super Bowl parties were also in the mix, as the two loved the Patriots. Stephanie Sarkis, a close friend of the two, said she was even happy for them when the Red Sox won the World Series.

"Everybody knew they were Red Sox fans, and we were very excited for them," she said. "I'm so glad they got to see them win the World Series."

Sports is what kept Brian's twin brother, Michael, who lives in Dorchester, in constant contact with them. Michael's wife, Katie, said the three would talk on the phone five times a day and more when there was a Red Sox game on. Both Brian and David were in their brother's wedding last year, and David gave the toast - something Katie was leery about.

"He really likes to talk, and it was a very long toast," she said. "But it was beautiful."

The Marshalls' mother, Esther, said David would talk about anything and everything, much more than Brian.

"Brian didn't like people knowing all of his business," she said at her Western Avenue home yesterday. "With David you always knew what was going on."

David was a talker in class, too, according to his brother, Michael. In one of his college courses David contributed so much that the professor initiated a project to encourage other students to speak up.

"They each got poker chips, and every time they spoke they would have to give one up," he said. "David got the smallest number of chips, but he just brought in a stack of his own."

There is one time in particular, Daniels recalls, that David might have spoken too soon. During a Walk for Cancer fundraising event in 2003, the Student Honorary Organization was looking to raise $800, but David, the president of the organization, wanted more.

"David said if they could raise $1,500 he would sheer his shoulder-length hair," said Daniels. "That was like waving the red flag in front of the bull ... they ended up raising $2,500."

Growing up eight years apart, Brian, and David, were always close, and they shared the same interests, said their mother. Both were members of the Gloucester High School Rifle Team, and Brian received many awards.

As a championship shooter, Brian was named MVP of the Metropolitan Rifle league all four years he was in high school. He won 13 individual titles in 1986 at the U.S. Outdoor Shooting Championship. Esther Marshall said the boys were active and dedicated to the rifling, which earned them both scholarships to Eastern New Mexico University.

David graduated summa cum laude and went on to Boston University for his master's degree in psychology. Brian graduated cum laude and proceeded to the University of Florida, where the two met up again in 1999.

Michael even lived with his brothers for two years in their three-bedroom apartment in Gainesville. He said the three got along really well and even as a young boy his older brother, David, never treated him like a younger brother.

"He was the best older brother," he said. "Even when he was 16, and I was 8, he thought about asking if I wanted to go to the movies with him."

Although Brian's twin brother, Michael said he really resembles his brother David. That didn't stop the twins from getting into trouble together, though, said their mother.

"I remember once when Brian and Michael were 2 years old, they were putting Tide detergent into the dryer and all the toilet paper in the toilet," she said. "I had to clean it all up."

But the boys made up for it later on as they were generous and helpful, Esther Marshall said.

"I would call them about a problem and ask them what I should do," she said. "Be it about the car or the phone, they would be able to tell me what to do from long distance."

While their family was in Massachusetts, the Marshall brothers made close friends in Florida that were much like family. Sarkis, who met the brothers at the University of Florida, said that during the hurricane season of 2005, they helped clean the trees off the Sarkis' yard.

"They live a mile away from us, and we were trapped by trees in our neighborhood," Sarkis said. "Trees fell in our driveway, and they walked down and chain-sawed our fallen trees so we could get out. It is amazing the help that they gave us."

Growing up on Western Avenue in Gloucester, the two men never forgot their roots and even found a way to share it with their friends in the School of Counselor Education at the university.

"We had potluck dinners two times a year to welcome the new students," Daniels said. "And they made their New England clam chowder; it was really good. They never skimped on the clams."

The Counselor Education Department plans a memorial in the men's memory for Sept. 1, and Daniels said there wasn't a student in the 200-plus department that didn't know the Marshalls.

"In a word, they were stellar," he said. "They were just larger than life."