Updated Dec. 28, 2012, 2:09 p.m.
Third-year law student John Kenneth Hroncich died Dec. 20 at his family home in New Jersey. He was 24 years old.
His brother, a New York University student named Patrick, found him dead in his sleep. He said Thursday that the family was still waiting on the state medical examiner’s office for the cause of death, and that Hroncich had no known illnesses.
“He was always the kind of person to look on the bright side of things. He was always joking, always laughing,” his brother said. “He was like a friend-to-everybody kind of person.”
Hroncich earned his undergraduate degree in economics and political science at Rutgers University, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
The Hazlet, N.J. native was a Scarlet Knights football enthusiast and a news junkie, interested in criminal law, public service and government work, his brother said. Last summer, he worked as a legal intern in New Jersey’s Division of Investigations to help root out public fraud.
He was also deeply curious about and concerned with others, and ”talked to people like he had seen them the day before,” Patrick Hroncich said, even if it had been weeks or months.
Dean Paul Schiff Berman notified the law school community of his death in an email the following Saturday.
“We recognize the impact that such an unexpected loss can have on all of those who knew John,” Berman said. “Our thoughts are with John’s family and friends at this extraordinarily sad time.”
He is survived by his parents, William and Maryann, his brother and sister, Patrick and Theresa, and his grandparents, Kenneth and Gloria Reilly.
Priya Anand contributed to this report.