The soccer unit in one Alaskan middle school’s gym class was at its end, and the students were to duke it out in a final tournament.
The teams were chosen in private in an effort to spare hurt feelings, and when it had come time to draft their first picks, the other captains went straight for their athletic classmates.
But not Patrick Doherty.
Doherty instead chose a special needs classmate who could not even kick the ball, Doherty’s mother Susan said.
‘Everyone assumed that Pat had the bad draw, when in fact he chose [him] first,’ Susan said. ‘And nobody knew except for the teachers and the other captains. He wasn’t looking for recognition. That’s who he was, that kind of soul. You can’t teach that.’
Doherty, a Boston University sophomore, was found dead last month from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on a beach near his hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska, according to Alaska police officials. He was 19.
Doherty’s decision to end his own life seemed at odds with what family and friends described as a happy and laid-back young man who was both talented and intelligent, as well as deeply caring and loyal.
‘He valued people for who they were,’ Susan said. ‘Status and that didn’t impress him. He loved people for their heart and their character.’
‘He was just a good soul,’ she said.
Family was very important to Doherty, Susan said. Growing up in Ketchikan, Alaska, a small island town dominated by the fishing industry, the family spent a lot of time at home together.
At Ketchikan High School, Doherty served as his class president, school board representative and swim team captain, played baseball and played saxophone in various high school and community bands. Doherty graduated co-valedictorian in 2008.
Teachers described him as exceptionally intelligent, having a natural ability for science, Susan said. Doherty would often ask his high school biology teacher questions to which the teacher did not even know the answer.
‘He was gifted that way,’ Susan said. ‘There were so many things in biology and chemistry that he just knew and deduced-that he just realized would be the natural outcome.’
Doherty went on to study biochemistry at BU. He had adult friends who had died from cancer and various other diseases, and wanted to perhaps end up researching disease, Susan said.
‘He thought that that might be something he could tackle, that maybe he could see something different that hadn’t been seen before because he had a natural ability for it,’ Susan said.
Doherty also had a natural gift for music, playing his first paid gig for a local theater production at 13, Susan said. Doherty played the clarinet, the saxophone, the piano, and was teaching himself to play the guitar at BU.
He often worked through issues using music, and many times would come home from class only to pop in his headphones, stretch out on his bed and nod his head to the music for hours, his roommate College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Srivatsa Dattatreya said. Doherty also would often play guitar late at night, jamming with his friends, Dattatreya said.
‘He wasn’t playing it to seem cool or playing it precisely,’ Dattatreya said. ‘He was playing it according to his own ear, his own passion, his own love for the music. You can see in his face that he loved it so much.’
Doherty was never afraid to try new things or meet new people, and never shied away from a challenge, Dattatreya said. To those who knew him, he was rarely just a friend-he was a brother.
‘He was a great guy,’ Dattatreya said. ‘Not just great, he was that crazy guy that you can’t live without. He was a calm presence, but the life of the room, the party.’
Everything about Doherty emanated his nonchalance, friend and College of Communication sophomore Jessica Friedowitz said.
‘When he said goodbye, he always said ‘peace’ and flashed the peace sign, and I think that really reflects his personality,’ Friedowitz said. ‘He just had that personality that makes you feel like everything is going to be okay because he was okay with everything.’
Doherty loved helping those around him, whether it was guiding a friend through a drug problem or just putting a smile on people’s faces with a joke, Susan said.
‘It’s just amazing how many people say he was their best friend and he helped them be a better person and they wanted to emulate him,’ Susan said.
In his valedictorian speech, Doherty said he believed a person’s worth is measured ‘only in the immeasurable, such as love, courage, and trust.’ True friends are the most valuable thing in life, he said.
‘Like everyone else, I’m just a kid who’s being thrown into a world that’s larger and wider than I comprehend,’ Doherty said. ‘It’s my perspective that as we go forth, meet new people, explore new places, we should greet new acquaintances with eye contact and honesty, and let each of us see one another for our true selves, not for the stigmas that we are too often associated.’
In addition to his mother Susan, Doherty is survived by his father Philip, his sister Erin and his grandmothers, Ruth Osterberg of Port Angeles, Wash. and Nancy Doherty of Medway, Mass.
Doherty’s family has established the Patrick Doherty Memorial Scholarship Fund, with donations going to award scholarships to college students. Those interested in donating should contact the Tongass Federal Credit Union in Ketchikan at 907-225-9063.
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