For Michael Robert Gray, the six months he spent studying in Prague while attending Northeastern were the best of his life.
“It was like starting new and just being able to get out and be in a totally new situation and have no expectations and have no responsibility to anyone but himself,” said Michael Rolfes, one of Gray’s best friends and a middler computer engineering major at Northeastern.
Gray, a junior history and political science major and one of only 12 recipients of the Presidential Scholarship in 2003, died unexpectedly July 11 in his residence hall. He was 21.
Born Nov. 15, 1982 in Boston, Gray grew up in West Roxbury and attended the Boston Latin School before relocating to Weymouth in 1998. There, he attended Weymouth North High School, where he graduated in 2001.
In the fall of 2001, he enrolled at Northeastern where he became a member of the National Honor Society and the National History Honor Society.
“He loved Northeastern more than anything,” said his mother, Barbie, of West Roxbury. “He said the school has given so much to him and he wanted to give back to the school.”
Before studying in Prague, Gray worked as a co-op student with Congressman Stephen F. Lynch, of Massachusetts, at the Statehouse in Washington, D.C. The job was a natural progression for him. Gray, a Democrat, grew up discussing politics with his father, a Republican.
“I guess he just wanted to be somebody who could change the world,” said his father, Robert, of West Bridgewater. “I guess he felt that politics had some way of changing things in the world and that’s how he got into it.”
However, Robert Gray said his son was planning to follow the teachings of his other major and become a history professor. Rolfes said his friend particularly enjoyed the historical buildings and sites in Europe.
While in Prague, Gray had the chance to visit several other countries including Germany and Switzerland, his father said. While at home, he took trips to Cape Cod and Montreal with his friends. He went camping for the Fourth of July with his roommates.
“He did a lot of things for a young kid who went to college,” his father said. “In fact, he’s done more traveling than I have.”
In addition to his parents, Gray leaves his grandmother, Gerald-ine, of Weymouth; two aunts, Cindy Cannon of Hopkinton and Marianne Berry of West Roxbury; and an uncle, Stephen Berry of Belmont.
A funeral Mass was said Friday at the Holy Name Church in West Roxbury.