Outgoing Student Who Brought Cultures Together Dies at 19

Marian H. Smith ’04, a product of an upbringing that spanned continents who drew unlikely personalities together through her warmth, vibrancy and love of different cultures, died in an apparent suicide Friday. She was 19.

The official cause of death has not yet been determined.

Born in Kenya but raised in Somalia and Luxembourg, the Winthrop House resident spoke six languages and was learning a seventh. Her desire to develop a greater understanding of humanity led her to study social anthropology.

She kept up a packed calendar of engagements, often scheduling lunch dates on the fly as she walked to the Yard. Her frequent trips exploring Boston took her to many restaurants and clubs.

Recognized for her sense of style, Smith looked equally at home in high fashion and in finds from the Salvation Army. Friends often complimented her on the Hanes t-shirts she decorated with feathers in her dorm room.

Thought to be the unifying force in her blocking group, Smith brought an intense personality to her many friendships and a charm that made people feel special in her company.

“Everyone who knew her felt like she was one of their closest friends,” said one of her friends. And “everyone knew her.”

Cell phones messages to Smith’s friends were constantly interrupted by her stopping to talk with acquaintances who happened to be passing by.

Even at clubs in Boston, she carried on serious conversations with people she had just met.

“A conversation with Marian was never a surface conversation,” said Deanna E. Barkett ’03.

Friends said men were frequently drawn to Smith’s “bubbly” personality, but that she was too humble to realize how many admirers she had.

Seven of Smith’s closest friends, who met to speak about her yesterday, said Smith could turn strangers into best friends. They asked that their names not be used because they wanted to make clear the scope of Smith’s impact on those she knew without drawing attention to a single person’s grief.

“She wasn’t like any of the students here at all,” one friend said. “And yet she got along with everyone.”

Peter J. Giordano ’04, a friend since the two were first-years, said when he and Smith lived across the hall last year, they spent hours “just crashing at each others’ rooms, hanging out and laughing.”

“She was just a really, really outgoing and fun, friendly person,” Giordano said.

And when Smith laughed, friends said, she was never embarrassed to lose inhibitions.

“She would just guffaw. She was not ruled by social convention,” one friend said.

A Sense of Style

Not only was Smith beautiful, but friends said she also had a talent for recognizing beauty in unlikely places.

Even her more casual acquaintances remembered her fashionable dress.

“She was always so cutely dressed, super-fashionable,” said Natalia B. Bedoya ’04, who attended Italian class with Smith and said that even during last week’s snowstorms, she would still come to class dressed to the nines.

“She could walk into a Salvation Army store and come out looking like she had been in Dolce & Gabbana,” one friend said.

When Smith carried her 69-cent purse, it was mistaken for a Fendi.

Although Smith had not decided on a future career, her friends said she talked about working in high-end fashion or becoming a talk show host.

“She didn’t want people to judge her goals,” a friend said. “But you knew she was going to do something cool.”

“I can’t imagine her doing anything that didn’t involve people,” said Winthrop House Senior Tutor Courtney B. Lamberth.

A Meeting of Cultures

Friends said Smith’s ability to bring people together came from her diverse upbringing.

Born on Dec. 28, 1982, in Mombasa, Kenya, while her parents were on vacation there, Smith spent her first eight years in Somalia and then moved to Luxembourg, where she graduated from the European School of Luxembourg. Her family moved to France after she came to Harvard in the fall of 2000.

“There was a very rich meeting of culture between her Somali mother’s background and her Danish father’s,” said Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson. “She was very deliberate about gaining a deeper understanding of her twin backgrounds.”

Smith traveled several times to Denmark and had talked about living there later in life.

She considered taking time off last year to travel and study in Europe.

Raised to speak Danish, English and Somali, Smith also learned French, German and Luxembourgish. At Harvard, she was studying Italian.

Friends laughingly remembered how Smith spoke English with a European twist, comically mixing words like “trousers” with American slang.

A Life Lived Passionately

Beyond her penchant for languages, friends said Smith was passionate about film, anthropology and music.

She enjoyed foreign films, especially Asian ones, and took film classes both last year and this year at Harvard.

Last summer, Smith worked for a production company in Los Angeles.

“She loved things intensely—she would listen to one song for 48 hours straight,” a friend said, citing hits by Fiona Apple, Sade and Stevie Wonder as examples.

Barkett said she was impressed by how Smith went about making plans and pursuing funding for a trip to Africa last summer—even though she did not end up going.

“Everyone marveled at her ability to go after something when she wanted it,” Barkett said. “It seemed like nothing could stop her.”

Smith’s interest in anthropology followed in the footsteps of her father, Lars Christian Smith ’70, who also concentrated in anthropology at Harvard.

But her friends said her choice of academic pursuit was also motivated by “a desire to know humanity.”

At Harvard, Smith worked at the

Graduate School of Design library and dabbled in other campus activities including the Bee, a female final club, and the Women in Business club.

In addition to her father, Smith is survived by her mother, Asha Hagi Dirie Hersi, her brother David, 16, and her sister Sophia, 12.

A Harvard memorial service will be held on Wednesday.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.