Seth Roberts ’06, a dedicated Brandeis student athlete from Orange, Conn., passed away on Sunday at a Boston hospital after a long battle with cancer. He was 28.
Roberts graduated from Amity Regional Senior High School in Woodbridge, Conn., and majored in American studies, and business while minoring in journalism in his years at Brandeis. In his free time, he played varsity basketball as a recruited athlete, wrote for The Justice and Louis Lunatic Sports Magazine, was president of the Lacrosse Club and participated in WBRS campus radio.
Following graduation, Roberts explored several careers in writing and the business world, which fulfilled his dual passions for sports and music as both a participant and a fan. He worked as a writing and graphic design associate at his family’s strategic communications firm, Freeman Roberts, as a blog writer and editor at an online poker site, TexasHoldEm.com, as a technical writer at a financial firm, and most recently, as a real estate agent. In addition to work, Roberts was a drummer in a metal band.
Roberts’ journalistic talents were apparent as he chronicled his battle with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and recent relapse on a Tumblr page called “Descriptions from Dana,” referring to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he was treated. With dark humor and brutal honesty, Roberts blogged about his treatment, side effects, the bone marrow transplant that he received from his sister, and reflections on being “a young man living with an old man’s disease.”
Still, he wrote optimistically on “Day Zero,” the day before his transplant: “I have hope for the future and I appreciate that going through this pain likely affords me the opportunity to live again in the future.”
On his Facebook page, he urged his family and friends to get a cheek swab to become eligible for bone marrow donation through two donor registry organizations, Be The Match or Gift Of Life. His family requested that donations be made to Be The Match in his honor.
Roberts is survived by his parents, Richard and Joan Roberts of Brighton, Mass., and his sister, Hillary Roberts.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Seth Roberts was a journalism major. He was a journalism minor.
