Marco Troper, a 19-year-old student and son of YouTube’s former CEO, Susan Wojcicki, was discovered unresponsive in his dorm room at the University of California, Berkeley. The incident happened on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at the Clark Kerr Campus, a student residential facility.
Upon discovery, the Berkeley Fire Department in California alerted the University of California Police Department at approximately 4:23 p.m. The emergency team attempted life-saving procedures on Troper but were unable to revive him. Campus police have found no evidence of foul play in Troper’s passing.
Troper’s grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, a respected author and educator, expressed to local media that she believes her grandson’s sudden death was possibly due to a drug overdose. The family is currently awaiting a toxicology report to confirm the cause of death, a process that may take up to a month.
In a Facebook post, Esther Wojcicki remembered Marco as a kind and intelligent individual. She spoke of his passion for his math studies, his close-knit circle of friends from Stern Hall and Zeta Psi fraternity, and his overall commitment to his academics.
She stated that the family is grappling with the sudden loss of a promising young individual, leaving them “devastated beyond comprehension.”
This tragic event has ignited a conversation about the potential dangers of drug use among young adults. Esther Wojcicki has called for increased awareness about the risks associated with narcotics, especially those potentially mixed with lethal substances like fentanyl.
The University of California, Berkeley has acknowledged Troper’s death, but specific details about the cause remain under investigation by the Alameda County coroner’s office.
Susan Wojcicki is known for her role as YouTube’s CEO from 2014 to 2023 and her significant contributions at Google, where she developed major advertising and analytics products such as AdWords, AdSense, and Google Analytics.
She is also known for providing Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, with their first office space by renting out her garage in 1998.
In addition to his mother and grandmother, Marco is survived by his father Dennis Troper, and four siblings. The extended Wojcicki family, which includes several notable individuals in the tech and education fields such as 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and UC San Francisco professor Janet Wojcicki, are now dealing with this personal tragedy.
