UC Berkeley freshman, son of former YouTube CEO, found dead in dorm

By Jordan Parker, Danielle Echeverria
Updated Feb 17, 2024 1:25 p.m.


Susan Wojcicki speaks onstage during the YouTube session at the Cannes Lions Festival 2018 in 2018. Wojcicki’s 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, was found dead at UC Berkeley on Tuesday.

Richard Bord/Getty Images for Cannes Lions

The family of a 19-year-old UC Berkeley freshman is mourning his death after he was found unresponsive in a college dorm, possibly due to a drug overdose.

Marco Troper, who was in his second semester at the university, died Tuesday, his grandmother Esther Wojcicki posted on social media. Troper, a math major, was the son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who stepped down from her role last year after 25 years with Google, which owns the video streaming service.

“Tragedy hit my family yesterday,” Esther Wojcicki wrote online. “My beloved grandson Marco Troper, age 19 passed away yesterday. Our family is devastated beyond comprehension. Marco was the most kind, loving, smart, fun and beautiful human being.”

The grandmother told the Palo Alto Daily Post and SFGate that Troper’s death may have been as a result of a drug overdose. The family is waiting on a toxicology report that could take a month.

When reached via email Friday, UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore confirmed the university had a “student death earlier this week.” Gilmore said a student residing at the Clark Kerr Campus was found unresponsive on Tuesday around 4:23 p.m. Berkeley firefighters attempted lifesaving measures but the student was pronounced dead. There were no signs of foul play and an investigation into the death is underway, Gilmore said.

Esther Wojcicki said Marco had a “strong community of friends” and was a part of the Zeta Psi fraternity. She also said he had been excelling academically at Berkeley.

“At home, he would tell us endless stories of his life and friends at Berkeley,” she posted on social media. “Marco’s life was cut too short. And we are all devastated, thinking about all the opportunities and life experiences that he will miss and we will miss together. Marco, we all love you and miss you more than you will ever know.

Troper’s aunt Anne Wojcicki is the co-founder and CEO of DNA testing company 23andMe and was married to Google co-founder Sergei Brin from 2007 to 2015. His grandfather — Susan and Anne’s father — was renowned Stanford physicist Stanley Wojcicki, who died last year.

Esther Wojcicki, Troper’s grandmother, is UC Berkeley alumna, journalist and educator. She founded the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Program and wrote the bestseller “How to Raise Successful People.”

She did not immediately respond to a further request for comment and no other members of the family were available.

Source (Archive)

 

[Grundlejungle]

Good. I hope everyone in that family of vipers follows his lead.

 

[Buttigieg2020]

It’s wrong to celebrate the death of a child, but it’s comforting to know that even the children of CEOs are being destroyed by the culture they helped create.

 

[derpherp2]

Why does Zeta Psi sound so fucking familiar...

 

[Al from Dadeville]

If he was in his dorm he was probably just trying to do normal drugs like vyvanse and got something with fentanyl in it

 

[Breadbassket]

Wojcicki WojACKED himself with a drug overdose.

 

[whatever I feel like]

It’s wrong to celebrate the death of a child, but it’s comforting to know that even the children of CEOs are being destroyed by the culture they helped create.

Thank god he isn't one, then.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got 'em!!

 

[Enig]

And in the Jimco weather forecast, we have tear showers late this evening, our meteorologist isn't sure if it's tears of grief or just the regular tears of stress drinking from remembering all the time wasted on stealing users' ad revenue.

 

[Lorne Armstrong]

…and nothing of value was lost.

It’s wrong to celebrate the death of a child, but it’s comforting to know that even the children of CEOs are being destroyed by the culture they helped create.

Agreed, but 19 years old isn’t a child.

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

Good. Rest in piss heeb. Hopefully your mother hits your leftover fent next.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

That sucks, I never had anything to do with frats when I was in college and for good reason.

 

[Colon capital V]

Yikes, that's gonna be a heckkin demonetization yellow dollar signerino right there. We gotta keep our YouTube community heckkin wholesome, LGBTQIACCPOMGWTF+ friendly and super duper postiverino. We can't have such heckkin hateful contenteroni. Meanwhile here's a video on how to help your kid take HRT.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Wojcicki got WojACKED himself with a drug overdose.

Yeah, we can't blame the vaxx for this one.

 

[Keith Kunt]

It's not possible to defame the dead is it, in a legal sense.
So he was probably a nonce.

 

[Fruttasecca]

It’s wrong to celebrate the death of a child, but it’s comforting to know that even the children of CEOs are being destroyed by the culture they helped create.

He was only 19, basically still in diapers!

 

[Breadbassket]

Another article on Troper's death that goes into some more detail:

Marco Troper, the 19-year-old student found dead at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus on Tuesday afternoon, died from a suspected drug overdose, according to a family member.

Troper’s grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, told SFGATE that she believes her grandson ingested a drug that killed him. “He ingested a drug, and we don’t know what was in it,” she said. “… One thing we do know, it was a drug.”

“We want to prevent this from happening to any other family,” Wojcicki said.

Troper was found unresponsive in his room at Clark Kerr on Tuesday, his grandmother said. He was found at 4:23 p.m. on Feb. 13, according to an emailed statement from campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore. The Berkeley Fire Department administered “life-saving measures” and UC Berkeley police officers also responded, Gilmore said, but Troper was eventually declared dead at the scene.

Wojcicki said the family is waiting on a toxicology report that could help confirm the cause of death, but it could take up to 30 days.

Troper grew up in a family of people well-known in the Silicon Valley world. He was the son of storied tech executive Susan Wojcicki, who led YouTube as CEO for many years. His aunt, Susan’s sister Anne Wojcicki, co-founded the genetic testing company 23andMe and is its CEO. His grandmother Esther is sometimes referred to as the “Godmother of Silicon Valley” and founded the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Program.
She wrote a book titled “How to Raise Successful People” that was published in 2019.

Troper is also survived by four siblings and his father, Dennis Troper.

Marco Troper was in the second semester of his freshman year in the university’s College of Letters & Science, UC Berkeley confirmed to SFGATE. He lived at Clark Kerr, the residential hall complex located six blocks from the main campus.

Esther Wojcicki described her grandson to SFGATE as a “math genius” and said he was getting good grades at UC Berkeley and planned to major in math. She said he was athletic, and that unlike so many young people who focus on one or two sports, he enjoyed playing them all. He was “gregarious” and “loving,” she said.

“He was everything you could have wished for in a son and a grandson,” she said. “He was destined to make a difference, it’s heartbreaking.”

Troper grew up in Los Altos and went to Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto before attending Menlo School in Atherton, Esther said. An email to the Menlo School community, viewed by SFGATE, shared some of Troper’s successes at the school before he graduated last spring, including leading the school’s hackathon and tutoring other students.

“He was incredibly intelligent, curious, and creative—often showing up to class and community events with a bright smile and an infectious energy,” school head Than Healy wrote in the email. “An avid mathematician and computer scientist, he relished tackling challenging problems.”

UC Berkeley is providing counseling support to the students who knew Troper, including those who lived with him and knew him through organizations on campus, Adam Ratliff, a spokesperson for the university, said in an emailed statement to SFGATE. Counselors have created “healing spaces” at Clark Kerr, Ratliff said, where students can share their memories of Troper and speak with counselors.

The university did not answer questions about whether Troper died from a drug overdose, saying his death is under investigation. Drug overdoses among teenagers have skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to fentanyl, studies have shown. Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid that can be 50 times stronger than heroin. It is also cheap, meaning people who make and sell drugs often cut their product, whether cocaine or counterfeit Xanax pills, with fentanyl to increase their profits.

Wojcicki said her family was devastated by Troper’s death, but she believes that in the future they will find ways to use the tragedy to educate others.

“Tragedy is very hard to sustain, it makes you want to hide in a closet and never come out, but I think the main thing is that we need to push forward to see what we can do to help other people so there won’t be any other kids who end up like Marco,” she said.

Article Link

 

[Pee Cola]

To be fair, if my mom was Susan Wojcicki I'd probably take myself out with a fatal overdose too.

 

[Enig]

It's not possible to defame the dead is it, in a legal sense.
So he was probably a nonce.

We need to find another alcoholic mick so we can claim him and twomad hung out at gay nightclubs, it's time for the big news

 

[kidatari]

I remember a few years ago reading that a son of Susan Wojcicki was a fan of Ben Shapiro and she wasn't to happy by this.
I just looked this up, just to make sure I wasn't wrong.
But yeah, back in March 2019, a 13 year old son of Susan Wojcicki watched Ben Shapiro videos and she thought it was a gateway drug to Neo Nazi
https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-exec-hates-her-son-watching-shapiro-videos-daily-wire

But, Susan Wojcicki's has five children and don't know if she has all males or some women
So, I don't know if Marco Troper was the one watching Ben Shapiro videos.

side note, since the far left is consumed with trans issues, for a while whenever I would see Susan Wojicki, I thought she was trans, MTF, because she has a manly face.
The far left has screwed up society so much crap, sometimes I just don't know anymore.

 

[Pissmaster]

Close that fuckin' border and deport every single one of those illegals. They're the ones bringing in all the fentanyl and killing people.