Nicholas Cumer was born August 21, 1993, and spent his formative years in the Borough of East Washington, Pennsylvania. Popular among his classmates for his charismatic personality, he took part in diverse extracurricular activities, serving in the marching band throughout all four years of high school and becoming Drum Major as a senior. He also played on the tennis and basketball teams and became the first male student to play on the girls' volleyball team. Outside school, he attended Washington Alliance Church and volunteered in the physical therapy department of Washington Hospital. After graduating from Washington High School in 2012, he continued his education at Saint Francis University, where he played sousaphone in the marching band, earned a bachelor's degree in exercise physiology, and later a master's degree in cancer care. During the last ten weeks of his final year at Saint Francis, he interned with Maple Tree Cancer Center in Ohio, where his passion for helping others made him beloved by patients, coworkers, and administrators, who offered him a job to operate one of Maple Tree's new offices in the Pittsburgh region. Just days before his internship ended, an evening out with friends turned tragic when a mass shooter attacked, and Nicholas gave his life shielding two coworkers from gunfire, saving them in a final act that reflected how he consistently put others first.