Class of 2020

 Juan Marcos Rodriquez ’20, of El Paso, Tex.; Jul. 2. After Brown, he pursued his masters in ecology and environmental sciences at the University of Maine. He continued there as a teaching assistant and mentor. He enjoyed hiking. He is survived by his parents, five siblings, two grandmothers, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

Alexander G. Burdo ’20, of Fairfield, Conn., and Yarmouth Port, Mass.; Oct. 29. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at age 12. His obituary read, “No matter the state of his health, he didn’t let the disease limit him, rather he used it to live life fully, casting away any thoughts of mortality. Alex had a deep love and respect for all birds, which he often credited with saving his life and his six years in remission; his favorite was the Florida scrub jay. From the age of ten he wanted to be an ornithologist and could often be seen with binoculars draped around his neck and a bird guide in hand.” In 2010 at age 13, he was the youngest recipient of the L.L. Bean  Outdoor Heroes award for his dedication to the Connecticut Audubon Society. He was a founding member and served as president of the Connecticut Young Birders Association and was  involved in banding at the Birdcraft Sanctuary in Fairfield. He was also a volunteer at the Wing Island Bird Banding Station in Brewster, Mass. In addition to being an Avian Point-Count Technician at the Intermountain Bird Observatory in Montana, he was active with the Connecticut and Massachusetts Audubon Societies, participating in the Christmas Bird Counts in both states. While at Brown, he wrote for the Brown Political Review, was a member of Kellner Lab, and was a teaching assistant. Additionally, he was a research assistant for two of his advisors studying the white-collared manakin in Costa Rica; the resulting work is being prepared for publication. For many years he maintained his blog, aphelocoma.com, where he’d write about birds and travels. He also enjoyed photography, politics, geography, history, astronomy, linguistics, music, the Boston Red Sox, the Miami Dolphins, and University of Michigan football. His memory was remarkable and he could relay the statistics for any major league player, give the scientific names for thousands of birds, discuss current global politics, and recite song lyrics from the 1970s. He is survived by his girlfriend Ann Walters;  his parents; two sisters; and many extended family and friends.  

Pierre S.M. Lipton ’20, of Charlotte, N.C.; Feb. 4, unexpectedly after crossing the finish line at the Mesa Marathon in Arizona. It was his personal best for distance in just over 3 hours and 10 minutes. He died of what doctors believe was “some sudden electrolyte imbalance that caused arrhythmia,” his father told the Boston Globe. He was valedictorian at Myers Park High School and volunteered at an orphanage in Panama to teach English and math before attending Brown to study economics and Middle Eastern studies. Always concerned about others, he started VitaLives while still a student—a company aimed at reducing malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. In addition, he became COO of the news company 1440 Media, cofounded by Tim Huelskamp and Andrew Steigerwald, which was created to share fact-focused information with the world. Pierre told EIN News in January 2022: “The news used to be something that brought people together. The whole family would sit around the TV, radio, or newspaper and consume the same information. Now, that couldn’t be further from the truth. At 1440, we believe the news can still be a way for people to connect.” As a result of his hard work and success, he was named Rhode Island INNO under 25 in 2020 and was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2022. “He accomplished more than anyone I know in just 26 years, but he still had so many plans,” his girlfriend, Eleanor Pereboom, wrote in an Instagram post. He spoke Spanish and Arabic and was learning Italian in anticipation of a planned trip in May. He was an adventurer and enjoyed travel, music, art, hiking, reading, geography, trivia, Scrabble, running, soccer, tennis, squash, and water skiing. He is survived by his parents, a sister, and his girlfriend Eleanor.

Leo M. Shiner ’20, of Hamilton, N.Y.; Sept. 8. At the time of his passing he was enrolled in a master’s program in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii. While at Brown, he studied for a semester in Yaroslavl, Russia, concentrated in linguistics and Slavic studies, and was involved in Tech House and Brown’s Catholic community. He cared deeply about political issues because of his concern for all marginalized people and started a chapter of Amnesty International in high school. In subsequent years he tutored children, taught English to immigrants, and registered young people and people of color to vote. He enjoyed music and played cello and sang. He was passionate about the preservation of endangered languages and the well-being of the Indigenous people who speak them. He taught himself multiple languages and had been working on designing an innovative language-learning video game that he hoped would make language learning accessible to all people. He shared his humor and knowledge of languages on his linguistics meme pages, the most popular of which, Etymology Memes for Reconstructed Phonemes on Facebook is followed by over 100,000 people around the world. He is survived by his parents, a sister, grandparents, and an uncle.