Beloved ’00 Grad Dies in Accident

Jeffrey Ron Gu ’00, a fun-loving champion of racial justice, died June 6 in a hiking accident in Venezuela, shortly before his 25th birthday.

He was buried in his native Southern California on June 14.

Gu, who was also a Crimson editor, graduated with a degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy—after shifting focuses a number of times—and held a wide variety of interests, said his close friend Ming H. Chen ’00.

“He was interested in business,” Chen said. “He’s had a couple of jobs in the private sector.”

But she also spoke of his goal of working with distressed companies and his hopes of studying the Chinese economy and working to improve it through education in finances.

In this way, he sought to combine his interests in economics and social justice, she said.

“It wasn’t just about making money,” Chen said. “He really liked economic analysis.”

Social equality was one of Gu’s chief interests during his time at Harvard as well, according to Jimmy Quach ’98, another close friend. He worked in the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid for the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program, working to bring Asian-Americans to Harvard.

Another of his commitments was the Asian-American Christian Fellowship (AACF), the group through which Quach and Gu first met.

Gu was a member of the AACF throughout his college career and served on the group’s executive board while he was a senior.

Quach, who also roomed with Gu in Boston several years after his graduation, remembered his relentless positivity and curiosity about people.

“He brought a lot of joy to our house,” Quach remembered. “He had a lot of energy and enthusiasm...any time guests came over, he would be genuinely interested in who they were.”

Though plans for Gu’s funeral were not solidly in place until several days before the event, the service was “overflowing” with family and friends from Harvard and elsewhere, said Chen, who also delivered one of the eulogies for Gu.

“A friend of mine observed that a lot of people will say that Jeff was their biggest fan,” Quach said. “The fact that so many people went out to L.A. is testimony to how much he did encourage people.”

Chen said Gu’s deep concern for others was one of his defining characteristics.

She remembered him caring for her and keeping her company after an unexpected surgery earlier this year and said it was the type of thing he would do without question, for anyone.

She also said their last conversation—beginning as an explanation about why he’d had to cancel a meal with her—ended with him asking questions about her, her health and happiness.

“It’s not a coincidence that in that last conversation, he sort of asked about everything important in my life,” Chen said.

“He’d figured out a lot of things at the age of 24, more than a lot of people can ever say,” added Quach.

A memorial service for Gu will be held at Highrock Church in Somerville tomorrow at 4 p.m.

—Staff writer Laura L. Krug can be reached at krug@fas.harvard.edu.