Suicides
Columbia has had its share of suicides like most other elite institutions of higher learning (but unlike NYU, which has had far more). If you or someone you know has made even a passing remark about suicide, it is suggested to contact Health Services immediately.
Partial list of suicides
This list is very incomplete since major media outlets, for the most part, stopped reporting on college suicides during the 1960s.
| Date | Person | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 4, 1898 | Henry E. McDermott | Assistant Professor of Chemistry | Prussic acid |
| November 11, 1901 | Richard Mayo Smith | Professor of Political Economy | Jumped; possible accident. |
| February 21, 1902 | Isaac N. Henderson | PhD Candidate | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| January 27, 1906 | William N. Van Reypen Jr. | Law School student | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| February 27, 1906 | Ralph C.B. Moore | Student | Drowning |
| January 23, 1907 | Lathrop Smith | Law School student | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| November 16, 1907 | Lucien M. Underwood | Professor of Botany | Slit throat |
| December 5, 1914 | Robert H. Jones | Student | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| August 8, 1919 | John Hipp | Student | Multiple: slit wrist, throat, and jumped) |
| October 16, 1921 | Dorothy Wilson | Student | Jumped under train at 125th Street New York Central / Metro North |
| August 28, 1924 | Francis E. Brooks | Professor of French | Hanging |
| March 9, 1925 | Henry Mead | Student | Jumped from sixth floor of Hartley |
| March 14, 1926 | Walton White | Student | Hanging |
| September 21, 1927 | Oscar Petty | Professor of Linguistics | Drowning |
| May 13, 1928 | Rollin F. Lewis | Student | Hanging |
| May 23, 1928 | David Halfant | PhD Candidate in Economics | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| June 7, 1929 | Russell G. Smith | Professor of Sociology | Jumped |
| March 9, 1930 | Louis Finkelstein | Law School student | Jumped |
| May 11, 1933 | Edgar F. Grossman | PhD Candidate in Philosophy | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| June 16, 1937 | Fred Lester Acer | Student | Lethal dose of sleeping medication |
| October 21, 1939 | Robert E. Chaddock | Professor of Statistics | Jumped |
| April 13, 1941 | Marvin Krueger | Assistant Professor of Education | Gas |
| September 11, 1941 | Rudolf Schoenheimer | Professor of Biological Chemistry | Toxic acid |
| May 3, 1942 | Marion Ellis | Student | Gas |
| January 15, 1948 | Habeeb Ahmed Faruqi | Teachers College student | Jumped from ninth floor of Furnald |
| October 5, 1951 | Dorothy Bordes | Student | Hanging |
| October 20, 1953 | Edward R. Fenn | Student | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| July 21, 1954 | Madeline Jean Sommers | Summer student | Fire |
| January 3, 1955 | Lawrence Goldsmith Jr. | Student | Sedative overdose |
| April 28, 1958 | Frank William Ritchie Jr. | General Studies student | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| April 17, 1960 | Michael Bogost | Student | Potassium cyanide |
| November 26, 1961 | Richard Kulick | Dental School student | Self-inflicted gunshot |
| May 4, 1965 | Deborah Daniels | Teachers College student | Jumped |
| November 25, 1968 | Christine Gallant | Librarian | Sleeping pill overdose drowned in bathtub |
| February 18, 1974 | Hsio Min Feng | Professor of Chinese | Jumped in front of subway in Queens |
| September 24, 1988 | Jonathan A. Spohn | Student | Jumped or fell from fourteenth floor of John Jay; death may have been accidental. |
| August 20, 1991 | Myeng Soek Oh | SEAS student | Jumped from the window of his sixth floor apartment after learning he had flunked out. |
| September 20, 1998 | Shirley Yoon | Student | Jumped from twentieth floor of East Campus |
| September 21, 1998 | Darren Pascual | Student | Hanging |
| March 24, 2000 | Brian Malmon | Student | Suicide while on leave |
| April 20, 2000 | Puneet Bhandari | Student | Train collision |
| December 6, 2000 | Andrea Melendez | Student | Jumped off stairwell in McBain |
| November 9, 2001 | Nick Kemnitzer | Student | Jumped from East Campus apartment. |
| December 13, 2003 | Fraser Lunan | Student | Suicide while on leave |
| May 7, 2006 | Richard Ng | SEAS student | Jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge |
| January 31, 2009 | Eric Harms | SEAS student | Hanging in Hartley |
References
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