MSU graduate student, 42, found dead in apartment
Haslett
A 42-year-old MSU student was found dead Friday in his Spartan Village apartment from what a relative called “an accidental death from medication.”
Police discovered the body of Timothy Haslett, a second-year African American and African studies doctoral student, after they received a call to check on his welfare, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.
McGlothian-Taylor said there does not appear to be any foul play involved in the death.
An autopsy was performed Saturday, but results are still pending. Ingham County Medical Examiner Dean Sienko said toxicology results could be available as early as next week.
Adam Haslett, Timothy’s brother, said his sibling was an ambitious person with many unique interests who always had a love for learning.
“When I was 12, he would have been 16 or 17, I didn’t know the difference between fiction and nonfiction,” Haslett said. “He reached down to the book case and pulled a book of Friedrich Nietzsche off.”
Adam Haslett said his brother identified with music and had an enormous collection of vinyl records. Friends said he was deeply involved in African American studies and also enjoyed writing.
“He was amazing,” said Nikita Williams, a fellow graduate student in the Department of African American and African Studies. “Once you get to know him, he can talk forever … he loved to discuss anything and everything about his field.”
Chris Doss, who participated with Haslett in I Am My Brother’s Keeper Ministries, a mentoring program at the Malcolm X Academy in Detroit, said Haslett was a down-to-earth person who wanted equality for everyone.
“He was the kind of person who was for the people,” Doss said. “He (struck) me as very knowledgeable about African American culture and slavery.”
Haslett was born in London and lived there before moving to Kingston, Mass., at age 5. He returned to the United Kingdom to attend high school at Oxford and received his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., before attending graduate school at New York University in Manhattan. After graduating from MSU, Adam Haslett said his brother wanted to become a teacher at an inner city school.
John H. McClendon III, director of the Department of African American and African Studies, mentored Haslett. He said Haslett had a deep social conscience, even when his beliefs went against society’s norms.
“The question of principle always superseded the question of popularity,” McClendon said. “He represented the hallmark of what it means to be a person who is passionate, committed and dedicated to the field.”
A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. Friday at Friends Meeting in Cambridge, Mass. A reception will immediately follow the service.
Staff writer Abby Lubbers contributed to this report.
Published on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Comments
Grim Reaper
03/18/08 @ 9:25pm
MSU, where students go to die.
That’s like, what, five students dead so far?
Have Taste
03/18/08 @ 11:09pm
Could you please think about the grieving friends and family of this deceased man that might be reading this right now before you post unnecessary comments, Grim Reaper?
Fredrik
03/18/08 @ 11:16pm
He was in a class of mine, this is really sad and shocking news.
Grim Reaper
03/19/08 @ 12:27am
Being the angel of death, a Jungian archetype feared by some, celebrated by others and the bearer of the dead to their eternal fate has made me a little numb to such mortal concerns as ‘death”.
We all die, so why should death be a taboo? Our best course is to merely laugh in the face of death.
The Grinch
03/19/08 @ 12:45am
There are a lot of things in life that must and will happen, but we don’t have to constantly acknowledge them, or anticipate them. Some people might claim Carpe Diem because of death, but I think we can accept death without having to sugarcoat its significance.
final destination
03/19/08 @ 9:33am
No joke grim reaper. East Lansing is making Flint look like a safe alternative.
Teep
03/19/08 @ 1:23pm
Tim was a wonderful person who touched many here in the Boston area. I wrote up some thoughts/remembrances for the collaborative blog I write for here.
http://www.moodmat.com/?p=692
David Day
03/19/08 @ 1:39pm
I wrote something up too.:“http://www.weeklydig.com/blogs/dayvidday/tim-haslett-rip”
Words don’t really suffice.
ADD
03/19/08 @ 2:29pm
24 years of college partying does that to a guy…
james apt
03/19/08 @ 3:00pm
I had the pleasure of knowing Tim for a number of years under many different circumstances. He was a real gem of a person. His passing brings me unbearable sadness and, to be honest, everytime I hear New Order I’ll immediatly think of Tim.
tribe.net: www.statenews.com
03/19/08 @ 4:39pm
Trackback from http://tribes.tribe.net/9a73ed85-00c5-4778-9b1f-dd7552b6da35/thread/d7b37eb5-744c-42c6-81bf-ec4068702286#7d4cc6dc-67ec-4b1f-8768-f9ce73a9c24a
Some of you may remember my friend Tim, who i was living with about a year ag...
Tangee
03/19/08 @ 6:37pm
I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting Tim a couple of years ago online. We became the best of friends.We grew bery close, even though we were so many miles apart! Tim made his first visit to Memphis to see me. It began the most wonderful friendship that I had ever in long time. I was truly devastated to hear of Tim’s death! He supported me when I lost my father to pancreatic cancer about 5 months ago. Tim was one of my closest male friends in a long time. He was very loving, considerate, kind, intelligent, caring, understanding, and sincere. I truly will miss him! Love always, Tangee
Austin Jackson
03/20/08 @ 5:45pm
Only recently did I have the pleasure of talking and working with Tim. Dr. Smitherman’s My Brother’s Keeper Program (not “ministries,” as the article said) provided me with an opportunity to get to know this fellow AAAS student. As others have said, Tim was brilliant, an original thinker unafraid to challenge orthodoxy for truth, justice. I will miss talking with him. Our program, our field, our communities lost something special. Rest in peace, Tim. Prayers to his family during this tragic time.
Austin Jackson
Doctoral Candidate (ABD)
African American and African Studies
Wendy Shlensky
03/20/08 @ 6:00pm
My condolences to his friends and family. I just learned of his untimely death thru a mutual friend. We shared some wacky times at Brandeis – creating chaos and spreading humor. Even though we hadn’t spoken in MANY years, I thought it may be helpful to Reminisce here of some fun times – even if it was many many years ago. He was really into a british comic whose name I can’t remember, but think it must have been Glen Baxter (and if that wasn’t it, I would think Tim would have liked Glen’s work also). This comic drew cartoons and put tag lines underneath that had nothing to do w/ what was in the picture.
One thing led to another and he partially inspired me to send out the mass valentines, a practice that has since stopped, but had spread much joy throughout those lucky recipients.
What I’m trying to say is – we had fun talking in non-sequitors together and it makes me very sad to think of his demise in this way and all I can think is he would want us to play some loud techno – dance around – be wacky and have fun to remember him.
Much Love, Wendy
Petrina Vegan
03/20/08 @ 10:30pm
http://wzbc.blogspot.com/2008/03/tim-haslett-1966-2008-tim-haslett.html
sign our blog for tim…..
anonymous
03/21/08 @ 4:53pm
So very sad. He struggled with depression and kept on going for so long.
Felix Cutillo
03/21/08 @ 7:11pm
This is very sad. Tim worked for me in my record shop in Boston (Boston Beat) for several years. He had the most amazing sense of humor and wit. He made everyone feel very special. I will never forget him and his passion for music and above all the way he would make us all laugh. He will be missed very much!
Adam X / Sonic Groove Records
03/23/08 @ 6:53pm
I sold Tim many a record in my shop in the early 90’s. He was a very passionate person about underground electronic music. He was also one of the nicest people you could meet. I hope you are in a better place now then this planet.
robin
03/25/08 @ 3:32pm
I worked with Tim for a few years in NYC—he was a really special person, his brain held a crazy amount of detailed information and i’m so sad that he’s gone. Genuinely one of those people who we are worse off without.
heather heart
03/27/08 @ 9:53pm
Tim was a fine fellow. sorry to hear the bad news.
may his soul rest in peace
save me a spot Tim
Lee
03/29/08 @ 6:33pm
This is very sad. I listened to Tim’s music while he was a dj in Boston and I was attending Harvard. His music brought quite a bit of happiness to me. Any time I play New Order I think of him.
tony
03/30/08 @ 11:01pm
i met tim in the mid 1990s and really admired his scholarship on black cultural studies. we corresponded a bit back then and i always found him to be generous with his knowledge, humor, and real enthusiasm for critical thought and social justice. only years later did i become fully aware of his great interest in underground electronic music. he has influenced many in the boston scene as a dj, writer, and info source on new sounds, and over the last decade i have found myself retracing many of his exploratory steps particularly through techno and its many offshoots. recently i have become fascinated by dubstep, and again it is apparent that tim was light-years ahead of me and other converts. i will miss him and his interventions in multiple cultural fields of contemporary importance. his passing is very sad news indeed.
Henry Curteis
03/31/08 @ 6:19am
We send our love, condolences and best wishes to Nancy, Tim’s mother, Adam his brother and Julia his sister…our US cousins. We remember Tim on our tennis court in England as a child – not playing tennis but doing a continual as-if radio reporter commentary.
He will now re-join his father Brian, our cousin who died in tragic circumstances while Tim was a teenager. Both were highly gifted communicators and movers of others, and loved by those who knew them.