Peers Remember a Humble, Intelligent, Fun-Loving Friend in Will Zhang

Remembering Will Zhang, India G. McAlister, Zhang’s college friend, recalls an intelligent, humble friend with a passion for Greek philosophy, international law, and finding the best steak in Toronto.

“I think we should remember him as being a very multilayered person. He was able to be at one hand very thoughtful and very deep. He enjoyed deep conversation and philosophy. On the other hand, he was kind of like a child in the sense that he just loved doing things that were fun,” McAlister said. “He was someone whose passion and whose love for life was definitely contagious.”

Zhang, a first-year student at Harvard Law School, died March 23. He was 23. At his family’s request, The Crimson is not publishing the cause of his death, which is not considered suspicious.

Will Zhang, a first-year Harvard Law Student, died March 23. He was 23. By Courtesy of Facebook

His friends and peers remember a down-to-earth student who loved the musical “Cabaret” and weekly poker meetings alike. McAlister remembers watching “Jeopardy!” with Zhang as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, where he would answer the questions before everyone else had even finished reading them.

“He was just out of this world when it came to his mental acuity. He just could read fast, he could think fast. He just had a really large knowledge base, but he was also one of the most fun people to be around,” McAlister said.

Born in Dalian, China, Zhang grew up in Toronto, Canada. He attended Unionville High School in Markham, Ontario and graduated from the University of Toronto in 2016. As a student at the Law School, Zhang was involved in the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, the China Law Association, and the Harvard Federalist Society. Before coming to the Law School, Zhang worked as a research analyst at the NATO Association of Canada, according to its website.

Brian Yu, another of Zhang’s friends from college, remembers playing weekly poker games with Zhang and “the boys.”

“What impressed me the most about Will is his enthusiasm. Simply put, Will was ‘down’ for anything. If you wanted to go for Vietnamese food in the middle of the night at 3am, he would be there. If there was no space in the car, we would sit on each other's laps,” Yu wrote in an email.

Yu wrote that Zhang would have been a great lawyer.

“In this line of work, quite frankly, honestly, integrity, and trustworthiness are not common attributes. Will possessed all these qualities and more,” Yu said. “That was why I was so pleased to hear that he was accepted to Harvard Law. I was pleased not only for him, but for society as a whole — here was a guy that I know would uphold the highest standards of the Bar.”

As a member of APALSA, Zhang was a frequent contributor to club activities and initiatives, according to the club’s presidents Amanda Chan and Kevin Jiang.

“In APALSA he was an active member starting from our first orientation event of the year. Throughout the semester, he was part of our conference committee, a group that worked on organizing our annual conference on law and policy, and a regular attendee to our other events,” Chan and Jiang wrote in an email. “As someone close to the Asian and Asian American communities here at HLS, Will was always eager to help and learn more about APALSA’s efforts to help promote Asian faculty diversity.”

Friends held a memorial service for Zhang in Toronto on March 26. Dean of the Law School Martha L. Minow wrote in an email to students on the day of Zhang’s death that the Law School was looking for ways to commemorate him.

Both McAlister and Yu said Zhang was a role model to many who knew him. Scott Tsang, a high school classmate, said he respected and looked up to Zhang.

—Staff writer Jamie D. Halper can be reached at jamie.halper@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @JamieDHalper.