College senior Theodric Reed died suddenly on Sunday at his home in California, according to an email sent out Monday to students who knew him. Reed, whose friends called him Theo, was 22 years old.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner has not released Reed’s cause of death because they have yet to speak to his next of kin.
Reed’s death marks the sixth student death this calendar year.
The University said in a statement, “We were all deeply saddened to hear of his death, and Penn staff have reached out to his family in California to do everything we can to be supportive.”
Reed knew that he wanted to come to Penn since the beginning of his college search process.
“As soon as he set foot on Penn’s campus, he knew that was the school for him,” Linda Douglas, Reed’s mother, said. “He was a good kid, and a mother couldn’t ask for a better son.”
When Reed first got to Penn, he was a student in the Huntsman Program in Business and International Relations. But after taking a year off from school following his freshman year, Reed rethought his major and decided that he wanted to pursue his true passion — English — since he enjoyed writing.
Concentrating in Law and Literature, Reed wanted to become a lawyer after college, his mother said. He was interested in studying contracts law, possibly negotiating deals for a publishing firm.
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