Harvard Junior Lakota Tolloak Dies After Brief Illness

Updated January 19, 2025, at 2:38 p.m.

Lakota J. Tolloak ’26, a junior in Pforzheimer House, died on Friday after a brief and sudden illness in his hometown in Oklahoma, Harvard College announced Sunday.

Pforzheimer Faculty Deans Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks wrote in an email to House residents that Tolloak “was a welcoming and loving presence in the House, quick to offer smiles and greetings to new and old pfriends.”

Tolloak, who hailed from Ada, Oklahoma, was a concentrator in Integrative Biology pursuing a career in medicine.

“He had a heart for service and was an energetic community organizer for causes he believed would make the world a better place,” Chenoweth and Marks wrote.

Tolloak served as a Peer Advising Fellow to first-year students in Grays Hall and mentored local high school sophomores through the Emerging Leaders Program at the Radcliffe Institute.

“Lakota was a beautiful human being who touched others with kindness and compassion,” Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana wrote in an email to undergraduates. “We can honor him by doing the same.”

Chenoweth and Marks said they would hold a gathering for students already back from winter break in Pforzheimer’s Hastings Room at 5 p.m. Sunday. They encouraged students to attend a celebration of Tolloak’s life in Pforzheimer’s Holmes Heritage Room at 3 p.m. on Jan. 26.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.