More than $30,000 has been raised to help pay for Taylor Force’s funeral. Photo: Facebook.

More than $35,000 has been donated to help pay for the funeral of Taylor Force, the Texas native who was killed in a Palestinian stabbing attack in Israel this week.

The GoFundMe account, created on Wednesday with the goal of raising $10,000 for Force’s funeral expenses, surpassed the original target within the first day. The account was created by Brian Modisett, who was Force’s friend and classmate at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Business, located in Nashville, Tenn.

“The outpouring of support the Owen community has received today from our GoFundMe campaign shows us just how many lives Taylor touched and how much he meant to his family and friends,” Modisett told The Tab. “Taylor made me a better man and I will forever be grateful that he was my friend.”

Force, a US Army veteran and Vanderbilt University graduate student, was in Israel on a school trip when the terrorist attack took place on Tuesday in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv. His funeral will be held on Monday in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, according to a message posted on the GoFundMe account. The Austin, Texas news station KXAN said a memorial service for Force is planned at Vanderbilt University, but details have not been released to the public.

“This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world,” Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in an email.

Modisett described Force as a “kind of person that made everyone he knew a better person.” He told The Tab that his former classmate’s “charismatic personality” and selflessness were only a few of the qualities that made him so loved at the university.

“I never saw him in class without a smile and a positive attitude and his demeanor truly made him a leader on campus,” Modisett said.