But it wasn’t his mind that marked him as so extraordinary. “ He had a photographic memory and, like some other kids in our family, knew all the presidents and vice presidents in order. “ Tommy was remarkable from the beginning,” Jamie Raskin tells NPR’s Scott Simon. Tommy, as his father Jamie Raskin calls him, was also tormented by depression. His depression was “ a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him, and despite very fine doctors and a loving family … the pain became overwhelming and unyielding and unbearable at last.” He also had a secret, which ultimately took his life.Īt the end of the statement, the Raskins named the disease that killed their son. Tommy “ had a perfect heart, a perfect soul, a riotously outrageous and relentless sense of humor, and a dazzling radiant mind,” they wrote. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Sarah Bloom Raskin, memorialized Tommy in a lengthy post on Medium, introducing many of us to their brilliant and much-loved son. He has lost his sense of happiness ever after. Often fighting back the tears, Raskin said he never again will believe that everything will get better in the end. The Congressman praised his son, calling him an “ independent thinker” from a very young age who always displayed “ dazzling courage and poise.” He made sure his entire class was invited to his fourth birthday party, changed his lunch partners regularly at Eastern Middle School in Silver School so that he wouldn’t just sit with students in the magnet program, and held a dinner for a group of Montgomery Blair High School students so they could all enjoy the prom together, even if they had no date. His mother described an eight-hour road trip in which her son in college challenged a Libertarian professor to a debate, wrote his side of the issue, submitted it to a peer-review publication, and heard back from the professor two times.ĭuring the ceremony, guitar players sang “Hallelujah,” Bob Dylan’s “ You’re Going to Make Me Miss You When You Go,” Dar Williams performed two of her songs, including “ I Had No Right” about Maryland’s Daniel Berrigan. Scattered throughout the celebration of his life were videos featuring Raskin reciting two of his poems and intense interaction with a college professor. Yet another friend acknowledged that she had lost “every single game.“ Some admitted to losing “too many” Boggle games, and one friend estimated that she had lost 60 to 80 games over a nine-month period. Another friend, Tom Agger, said, “ Sometimes I would look at him and say that’s what I want to be when I grow up, which is such a crazy thing for someone his age to say.” Yet another friend called him “ the Michael Jordan of our generation.” “ He really, really cared about what you said,” said friend Sophie Clark. Arlene Bloom said her grandson was “ caring, devoted.”

The idea for the drive-in memorial arose when Tommy’s sister, Tabitha, said she felt cheated that due to COVID-19, she could not hug those who shared her grief and missed out on in-person, comforting Shivah, the Jewish mourning ritual.įunny, sensitive, kind, good, gentle, illuminary, authentic, and positive were just some of the many attributes cited. Tommy Raskin, who died of suicide at the age of 25, was remembered by family, friends, and thousands of others gathered at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., or watching virtually on YouTube. Memorial Service and Celebration of the Life of Tommy Raskin He was a poet, an enthusiastic Boggle player, a vegan, a political person who cared about every person and animal in the world. He was a graduate of Amherst College and was attending Harvard Law School at the time of his death. Tommy Raskin, who grew up in Takoma Park, lost his life to depression on Dec. Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me. He left a short note for his family, which read: “ Please forgive me. On the last day of December 2020, 25-year-old Harvard law student Thomas Raskin died by suicide.

Tommy raskin harvard cause of death