A UC Berkeley student found dead on campus last week was the son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, a family member confirmed in a Facebook post.
Marco Troper was found unconscious on Berkeley's Clark Kerr campus Tuesday afternoon, family and authorities say. Responding paramedics attempted life-saving measures but were unable to revive the 19-year-old freshman. Authorities have said there were no signs of foul play.
The Clark Kerr residential complex and event space, which primarily houses freshmen and juniors, is about six blocks from the main campus.
Troper's grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, confirmed his identity in a post on her Facebook account on Wednesday, writing that his death had left the family “devastated beyond all comprehension.”
“Yesterday tragedy struck my family,” he wrote. “Marco's life was shortened too much. And we are all devastated, thinking of all the opportunities and life experiences that he will miss and that we will miss together.”
Troper, a math student who was starting the second semester of his freshman year, was a “very kind, loving, intelligent, beautiful human being,” he wrote in the post, which showed several photos of a smiling Troper at different ages.
“He had a strong community of friends from his dorm at Stern Hall and his Zeta Psi fraternity and was thriving academically,” he wrote.
Esther Wojcicki told the Palo Alto Daily Post and SFGate that Troper's death may have been the result of a drug overdose; The family hoped a toxicology report could provide some answers, she told the media. These reports can take weeks to be published.
“We have provided counseling support and have reached out to the student's fellow residents with whom he lived, and to students who were members of organizations of which he was a member, to provide support resources,” the school said in a statement, according to local television news. reports.
Susan Wojcicki, one of the tech industry's most prominent executives, resigned from her position at the online video giant last February, writing in a farewell letter that she was doing so to focus on “my family, my health and my dreams.” personal projects”. It captivates me.”
His departure came as YouTube's parent company Google, as well as the tech world at large, was navigating a harsh new economic reality that had led to a wave of layoffs and cost-cutting measures.
As CEO, Wojcicki oversaw YouTube's dramatic transition from an amateur video uploading site to a massive media and advertising powerhouse. Today, YouTube claims to have more than 2 billion monthly users, with 1 billion hours of video watched each day by people around the world.
