Friends Remember Fonseca

By MAY HABIB

Crimson Staff Writer

Friends and housemates gathered in Winthrop House yesterday evening to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of Winthrop resident Anthony Fonseca ’04-’05.

Fonseca was found dead in his room on the morning of Feb. 22, 2004.

“Tonight is really just meant as a gesture, a commemoration, reflection, appreciation,” said Winthrop Senior Tutor Jim E. von der Heydt.

Fonseca, who was called “Deuce” by his friends, was known on campus for his energetic personality and his passion for film and music.

Those present remembered Fonseca’s sense of humor and love of life yesterday.

“He was this extraordinary personality,” said Winthrop House Master Stephen P. Rosen. “People who met him for the first time felt his intense energy and warmth.”

His friends also spoke of the pain of missing him.

“Anthony’s death and memorial services were shocking events for all of his friends, but for many of us, his absence in the ensuing year has proved even harder,” said Thomas D. Odell ’04-’05, a close friend of Fonseca’s. “This anniversary is unpleasant, but fortunately it is only one day, not three hundred and sixty-five.”

Carlos J. Rojas ’04, who spoke at Fonseca’s memorial service last March, said that he awoke on the morning of Feb. 22 to the memory of Fonseca.

“The [last] time I woke up with that feeling was the one year anniversary of my dad’s death,” wrote Rojas in an e-mail. “Then I spent the day very ill, both times, for some reason. Connection? Who knows? Just one last joke from Deuce.”

Fonseca, an economics concentrator from Oklahoma, was the middle son of Daisy Christian and Roberto Fonseca and had two brothers, now aged 18 and 23.

He was vice president of Harvard-Radcliffe Television (HRTV), director of HRTV’s soap opera, “Ivory Tower,” and was one of the organizers of HRTV’s Harvardwood program, which links undergraduates with Harvard alumni working in Hollywood.

“In his absence, that whole project went caput,” said Kit Tempest, a non-resident tutor in Winthrop and HRTV’s technical adviser.

Cambridge Police Department spokesman Frank D. Pasquarello said last year that no foul play was suspected in the death and that it appeared that Fonseca took his own life.

Fonseca’s death came only one year after the suicide of Marian H. Smith ’04, also a Winthrop resident.

The medical examiner’s death certificate says Fonseca died by inhaling starter fluid, although the certificate states that the death was an accident.

“I think that it’s pretty clear” that the death was a suicide, said Jukay Hsu ’06, Fonseca’s roommate, who first discovered the death.

“It really hit me just last semester,” said Hsu, who transferred to Harvard in the spring of 2004. “It was easier to just try to move on, especially since I was only here for three weeks when it happened. I had to catch up on my classes, get involved. It was too hard to think about it then.”

Odell said, “I wish he were still here. He was one of the most entertaining and talented people I knew.”

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.