Luke Santos, FCRH ’25, passed away on Feb. 20 in his off-campus apartment. Santos, age 20, was an economics major from Cambridge, Mass. A graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Santos was passionate about politics and was involved with numerous campaigns starting at age 14.
In 2020, Santos founded the Mask Up Project, a student-run group that distributed homemade masks to those in need.
With an avid interest in politics, Santos worked on campaigns in Cambridge and New York, including the campaigns of Julie Won, Yusef Salaam and Christopher Bae. In the fall of 2023, he was a Wealth Management Intern for Morgan Stanley.
Sophia Stryjewski, FCRH ’25, was one of Santos’ close friends at Fordham University. The two met as first-years after Stryjewski’s friend sat next to Santos in math class. Stryjewski remembers Santos as a kind person and dedicated friend.
“He was just the sweetest, most passionate person. He was so kind and he would do anything for you,” said Stryjewski.
Stryjewski recalled the countless times Santos would offer to walk from his off-campus apartment to pick her up on campus, saying that although he didn’t have to do those things, he did anyway. Stryjewski also credited Santos as an excellent cook: “He was such a great cook. He would always invite everyone over to dinner — we’d do ‘Friendsgiving’ and we’d have this elaborate meal.”
Two weekends before Santos passed, Stryjewski said that he invited their friends over for dinner and made homemade mac and cheese. “He was… such a kind soul. It’s such a shame that he’s gone so soon,” she said.
Stryjewski also shared that Santos was an avid nature lover. Originally from Newton, Mass., Santos was a big skier when he’d travel home during breaks. This past semester, Stryjewski said that Santos and her friends took a homework break and went to the New York Botanical Gardens. Santos pranced around pretending to be an “orange fall leaf.”
“We all loved him so much and we’re going to miss him a lot. I think it’s important, all his friends, to stick together and get through it together because it’s going to be a group effort. You can’t do this all by yourself,” said Stryjewski.
Katherine Hazzard, an English professor at Fordham, reflected on Santos’ contributions to one of her classes last semester: “Luke contributed so much to our fiction class this winter. What he described as the ‘extraordinary depth’ of ‘simple descriptions’ in stories by Max Frisch, Luisa Valenzuela and Jorge Luis Borges was there in his own writing too, in his observations about what we read or his wondering about other people’s experiences in the world,” said Hazzard.
Hazzard shared an excerpt from one of Santos’ writing assignments on the short story “Borges and I” by Jorge Luis Borges: “As we go through our lives, we craft stories about everything.”
“We will forever hold Luke’s memory in our hearts. We pray hard for Luke’s family and friends who are grieving right now at this terrible tragedy,” said President Tania Tetlow in a statement.
Santos was born in Newton, Mass., to parents Albertino Santos and Dr. Allison Bailey. He was also brother to Grace Mary Audette and Samuel Lancaster Audette.
Fordham held a memorial service for Santos on Feb. 28 in Sacred Heart Chapel in Dealy Hall.
