Anthony Brucato, a College of Engineering sophomore and member of Boston University’s College Bowl team, died of an apparent suicide Jan. 6. He was 19.
Anthony Brucato’s mother, Barbara Brucato, described her son as a bright, caring and sensitive young man who was troubled by bouts with depression.
“He was the type of kid who expected more for himself than he was,” Mrs. Brucato said of her son. “He was such a success in everyone else’s eyes, but yet he wasn’t that comfortable with himself.”
Mrs. Brucato said the “real sadness” of the incident was that while her son was loved, he seldom felt that way.
“He always felt like he wasn’t important to people, or felt that he didn’t have friends or couldn’t touch people,” she said. “So many people did care about him and did like him, and he didn’t feel that way — he felt very alone.”
According to Mrs. Brucato, her son came to her a couple days before his death and told her he thought he had a “defect in his personality.” He told her he felt like he couldn’t make friends.
Mrs. Brucato said she believed her son hadn’t planned his suicide beforehand, and just acted without really thinking about his actions.
“I think Tony did it just on impulse; he suffered for so long,” she said. “It wasn’t a planned act for any length of time; the day before, he was going to order a battery for his computer. You don’t do that and kill yourself the next day.”
On the day of his suicide, Mrs. Brucato said not much seemed out of the ordinary for her son.
“He attended church that morning and seemed like he was all right, and he seemed a little extra depressed,” she said.
Mrs. Brucato said laws regarding the lack of a waiting period on guns in New Hampshire and Maine may have contributed to her son’s suicide.
“He was able to buy a shotgun without any wait,” she said. “He went to a trading post — all he had to do was prove that he was 18 or older. They made a call to make sure he hadn’t committed any felonies, and they sold him a shotgun — ridiculous.”
According to Mrs. Brucato, Anthony loved hiking and had recently become a member of the White Mountain 4,000 Foot Club with his father by climbing 48 mountains that are at least 4,000 feet tall. In addition to hiking, Mrs. Brucato said Anthony had an immense love for animals.
“If he ever saw any animal by the side of the road, be it a squirrel or whatever, he felt terrible about it,” she said. “He watched any movies about animals, and just couldn’t get enough of them.”
Mrs. Brucato said her son was greatly interested in science and was a very moral individual, which led him to pursue Biomedical Engineering at BU.
“He was a very religious kid, with a strong ethical and moral constitution,” she said. “He believed every life was important.”
During his year-and-a-half at Boston University, Brucato joined the BU College Bowl team, where he had an impact upon the players.
Elmer Smith, the vice president of College Bowl and a School of Education junior, knew Brucato through College Bowl.
“Last year, Tony was very involved,” Smith said. “He came to all the practices and just about every meet — he was our science guy.”
Smith couldn’t believe the news when he first heard it yesterday.
“I was just very shocked,” Smith said. “I knew we hadn’t seen him a whole lot, but a couple other team members had classes with him. They said everything seemed fine. To hear something like this was very shocking because I wouldn’t have expected it.”
Rosie Vargas, a College Bowl member and classmate of Brucato, met him on a College Bowl trip to Dartmouth College. She, like Smith, said she was in disbelief.
“I was completely shocked,” Vargas said. “I had no idea that something was so wrong with him; he really didn’t seem like the type.”
Vargas, who was in Systems Physiology with Brucato, thought he was an accomplished student and saw nothing wrong.
“He was a pretty good student,” Vargas said. “He was under a full scholarship, to my understanding. He was on top of his classes, as I could see.”
Mrs. Brucato said her son was very happy at BU, and was proud to be a student at the University.
“It brings tears to my eyes when I see things in my room — he loved the school,” Mrs. Brucato said. “He was afraid to love the school since he was a homebody; it would have been easier if he went to [the University of New Hampshire], but when he got the scholarship to BU, he was thrilled.”
“He really liked the people he met at Boston University,” she said. “There wasn’t one person he met he didn’t like.”
Mrs. Brucato said if there was any one thing she would remember about Anthony, it was that he was a very loving child.
“All I can think of is that he could never tell us how much he loved us,” she said. “He was a very loving kid, and he felt the need to always tell us although we already knew it.”
According to an email sent to ENG students and faculty from ENG Dean David Campbell, a memorial service is being planned at BU for later this week. Details about the service will be announced later this week; students can get the information by calling the Undergraduate Programs Office at 353-3540.
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