With a single MBTA bus as his canvas, Thomas Starr, an associate graphic design professor at Northeastern University, created a mobile memorial to children who were killed by violence — a reminder for Boston citizens of increasing violence within the city.

The vehicle — painted bright yellow to resemble a school bus — is covered with quotes about murdered children and teenagers with the dates of their births and deaths.

Starr said some of the epithets listed outside the bus include, “He had a lot of friends,” “She was going to law school,” “He had a nice smile,” “He was an ‘A’ student” and “He was a good listener.”

Starr said he conceptualized the project after he “learned that there was a real problem with certain neighborhoods — the murder rate was quite high.

“There were neighborhood meetings to come up with a memorial design, to reach out to the rest of the city, and I wasn’t going to get the community to pay attention with the average memorial. I needed to do something that was active,” he continued.

The bus is covered with words and dates to commemorate the dead, but Starr said he purposefully “tried to make the bus neutral to ethnicity or location.”

“All of the quotes are in simple sentences,” he said. “There are no names though — it’s important that we preserve anonymity.”

Starr said the bus — called the 252 bus — will service MBTA routes across the city beginning Oct. 25.

“I think it turned out really well — people are responding to it,” he said. “Bus routes interconnect all neighborhoods, all classes, and it’s a good way to move the message.”

Starr said the bus’s creation took more than six years, working with a $5,000 grant from Northeastern University and a $20,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts, under the condition that he match each dollar through other means.

The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute — a Boston organization that supports families of homicide victims — helped Starr accumulate quotes to use on the bus by contacting hundreds of friends and families of children who have been murdered on Boston streets.

“We worked with over 300 families to accomplish this,” said Clemintina Chery, a spokeswoman for the organization. “We sent them all forms to fill out, and [Starr] chose which belonged on the bus.”

“Hopefully it’ll get the message across as a reminder for us to work harder,” she added.

The memorial is a collaboration between public and private groups with the common goal of ending violence.

“The project, ‘Remembering Boston’s Children 1980 to 2005’ is now a collaboration of the T, the professor, Thomas Starr, Titan WorldWide [the T’s advertising of space contractor] and the Endowment for the Arts,” said Lydia Rivera, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in an e-mail. “All these organizations support the effort.”

“The response has been quite positive, with customers and passersby stopping to read the messages, reflecting on violence and the importance of fostering a positive future for our youth,” she added.