Marco Troper, the 19-year-old son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, was found dead last week in his dorm room at the University of Berkeley.
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UC Berkley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore confirmed that Troper, an undeclared freshman at the university, had died in a statement to Gizmodo on Sunday. Gilmore said Troper was found unresponsive in his dorm last Tuesday and that authorities had carried out life-saving measures but were unsuccessful. The university does not know Troper’s cause of death but stated there were no signs of foul play.
Troper’s grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, confirmed her grandson’s death in a Facebook post and said the family was “devastated beyond comprehension.” She said Troper had a strong community of friends from his dorm and fraternity and was thriving academically.
“Marco’s life was cut too short. And we are all devastated, thinking about all the opportunities and life experiences that he will miss and we will miss together. Marco, we all love you and miss you more than you will ever know,” Esther Wojcicki wrote.
Esther Wojcicki told local outlet SFGate on Friday that she believed drugs may have played a role in Troper’s death.
“He ingested a drug, and we don’t know what was in it,” she said. “… One thing we do know, it was a drug,” Esther Wojcicki said. “We want to prevent this from happening to any other family,” Wojcicki said.
Troper is the son of Susan Wojcicki and Dennis Troper, a director of project management at Google. After leading the company for nine years, Susan Wojcicki stepped down as CEO of YouTube in 2023. The former YouTube CEO rented out her garage to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 and started working for Google in 1999.
Than Healy, the head of Menlo School, a private school in Atherton, California that Troper attended for seven years and graduated from in 2023, told Gizmodo in a statement that the teen’s loss was heartbreaking. Healy described Troper as an “incredibly talented, curious, and courageous” student who brought “much joy” to the Menlo community.
“Marco often showed up to classes and community events with a bright smile and infectious energy and was very supportive of his peers. An avid mathematician and computer scientist, he relished tackling challenging problems,” Healy said. “He enthusiastically helped lead Menlo’s hackathon and spent time tutoring younger students. His entrepreneurial spirit and visionary thinking were admired by many. He will be missed.”