By Todd Feathers, News Correspondent
While visiting a poverty stricken region of the Dominican Republic during a 2011 Social Enterprise Institute trip, Naman Shah stopped when he came across a shirtless boy. The Northeastern student, known to friends for his many acts of quiet charity, did not hesitate in taking the shirt off his back and giving it to the child.
Mr. Shah, a finance, marketing and entrepreneurship major, died of multiple organ failure Oct. 5. He was 21.
Mr. Shah was born Aug. 26, 1991, in Milford to Shreyaunsh and Varsha Shah. He lived his entire life in Milford before leaving to attend college at Northeastern.
Throughout elementary and middle school, he enjoyed playing soccer and video games, but most of all he took pleasure in making others laugh, his father said.
“He was a happy kid. He had a good sense of humor and liked to joke around,” Shah said.
In high school Mr. Shah was a member of the tennis team, math team and chess club.
While at Northeastern, Shah was involved in UTSAV, a South Asian student group, according to business school Dean Hugh Courtney. He was formerly a staff member of the Huntington News team.
He was also involved at his temple, the Jain Center of Greater Boston in Norwood, where he began to develop his passion for charity, his father said.
“He was involved with several charities,” Shreyaunsh Shah said. “In fact he was someone who was very quiet about it and never mentioned them to us.”
Mr. Shah gave his time and money to the YMCA’s Best Buddies, the Joslin Diabetes Clinic, Akshaya Patra – an organization which provides lunches to poor students in India and many others.
“He was a serious person but also loved to make other people happy and was really concerned with helping those less fortunate,” Dennis Shaughnessy, the professor who led the Social Enterprise Institute trip to the Dominican Republic, said.
Some friends and family said they only learned of many of Mr. Shah’s charitable acts after his passing.
“I just found out that he had been sponsoring a child in India, and he never said this to anyone at all,” his father said.
While in the Dominican Republic, Mr. Shah made a strong impression on his fellow students. Amanda Prifti, a junior environmental sciences and international affairs major who met Mr. Shah on the trip, said she was taken not only by his kindness but also his ability to befriend anyone.
“When we first met I don’t think either one of us liked each other very much … I think he thought I was a little reserved and I thought he was a little too loud … but it only took maybe a few days before we were best friends,” she said.
Shaughnessy said Mr. Shah was invaluable in situations where people were reluctant to interact with the Northeastern group.
“Naman was the first to run in and meet everybody and build relationships to make it work,” he said. Mr. Shah gained trust by delivering on the promises he made to help them, Shaughnessy said.
Prifti laughed fondly as she recalled Mr. Shah giving his shirt to the young boy in the Dominican Republic.
“That was what he was like, he always looked out for everybody; whether you were his best friend or you were somebody he’d just met he always made you feel comfortable,” she said. “Knowing Naman instantly made you feel more fulfilled as a person, he definitely brought out all of your good qualities.”
Mr. Shah is survived by his father, mother, brother Nirav and sister Neelam. The Social Enterprise Institute is organizing a scholarship, the Naman Shah Memorial Scholarship, in his honor.
