Casey Shearer ’00 was a vibrant, talented, and well—loved member of the Brown community. An economics concentrator, he also studied Spanish, political science, and literature, and he was one of a group that revived Brown Student Radio (WBSR). He was best known on campus as the station’s play-by-play sports announcer and as the author of a weekly sports column, “On the Case,” in the College Hill Independent. “He wrote with an ease and confidence,” said one of his favorite teachers, Distinguished Senior Lecturer Emerita Beth Taylor—an ease that reflected his warm personality and his potential for a successful career in sports journalism. Shearer was born and raised in Santa Monica, California, where his mother, Ruth Goldway, retired Chair of the US Postal Regulatory Commission, had once been mayor. He graduated from high school in Finland, where his father, Occidental College professor Derek Shearer, served as U.S. ambassador. A top student at Brown, Shearer was a member of the economics honor society and received his magna cum laude pin the Friday before he was to graduate. Later that day, during his regular pick-­up basketball game at the athletic center, Casey Shearer’s heart stopped and he collapsed, unconscious. Without prior symptoms, a virus had infected his heart. He died four days later on May 23, 2000, two months before his 22nd birthday.

Essays by Casey Shearer ’00

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