Philip Gale, a gifted young software developer
"For weeks, Gale had been asking classmates how to get access to the roof of MIT's tallest structure, the Cecil and Ida Green Building, which is occupied by the Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department.[7] On March 13, 1998, at about 7:30 pm in an empty classroom on the 15th floor of the Green Building, Gale brought his portable digital recorder, which he switched on.[1] Gale then wrote and drew the following on the blackboard: Isaac Newton's equation for how an object accelerates as it falls, along with a sketch of a stick figure tossing a chair. He signed it, "Phil was here", picked up a chair and hurled it through the heavy plate glass window. Witnesses said that he cleared the glass shards away, and then jumped out the window.[5][8][10]
Eric Plosky, a student at MIT, was inside an adjacent dorm watching television at the time of Gale's death, and heard a crashing sound.[11] Plosky recounted to National Public Radio, "The windows of the building were sealed. So he actually had to throw a chair out the window to break it so that he could jump through. The noise that we heard was that chair hitting the ground. Some of the people in my dorm actually looked out the window in time to see him fall."[11]
"It was typical Phil. It's so like him to have planned a show", said his former girlfriend Christine Hrul, "He was so careful with things in his life, so methodical".[7] Students reported hearing the sound of breaking glass, then a splintering sound, and last a scream.[12] Gale was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:05 pm.[10]
Police released part of Gale's suicide note, which was found at his apartment:
Presumably I have jumped from a tall building. Yes, it is odd. To tell you why would be to tell you my mind! I cannot do this. I am not crazy, albeit driven to suicide. "It is not about any single event, or person. It is about stubborn sadness, and a detached view of the world. I see my life — so much dreary, mundane, wasted time wishing upon unattainable goals — and I feel little attachment to the future. But it is not so bad, relatively. I exaggerate. "In the end, it is that I am unwilling (sick of living) to live in mediocrity. And this is what I have chosen to do about it. "The saddest part is the inevitable guilt and sorrow I will force on my family and friends. But there is not much I can say. I am sorry. Try to understand that this is about me and my 'fuked up ideas.' It is not because I was raised poorly or not cared for enough. It just is. "Please give my $ to my family and my gizmos to people who will use them. — and no fuking suing! "I am scared of the fall. I am scared of the impact. But when it is through, it will be through. "take care world, Philip"
Gale closed his handwritten suicide note with a smiley face and the words "And stay happy!"[1]
After an investigation and an autopsy by Cambridge police, Gale's death at the age of nineteen,[11] late on the evening of March 13, 1998, was ruled a suicide.[2]"
en.wikipedia.org
truly one of the few people who can grasp suffering in such a beautiful way and deeply understand it
