A Music junior who remained on campus over Spring Break to search for an apartment and summer job was discovered dead in his Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house room Thursday.
Joseph Doyle, 22, was found by friends in his room at the fraternity house. University Police responded to the scene at 4:40 p.m., said Alan Cubbage, Northwestern’s vice president for university relations.
Doyle’s cause of death has not yet been determined, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. The medical examiner decided to conduct further toxicology tests on Doyle’s body, the results of which won’t be known for several weeks, Cubbage said.
Doyle, who had played the saxophone since sixth grade but was trying to switch to a music composition concentration, is the second student to die on campus this academic year. Weinberg freshman Charles Kim was found dead after Thanksgiving break in an apparent suicide in his Sargent Hall room.
Cubbage said the entire NU community is mourning with Doyle’s friends and Massachusetts-based family.
“Early indications are that this is an accidental death and it’s truly unfortunate,” Cubbage said. “This is the most unhappy thing that can happen at a university. The death of a student is really troubling, no matter what the circumstances.”
Administrators are working with members of Doyle’s family to plan an on-campus memorial service for later this week or early next week. Doyle will be buried Wednesday in Quincy, Mass., said his mother, Jean Doyle.
She said her son had his choice of colleges but chose to attend NU because “he wanted the best.”
“He was thrilled to be at Northwestern,” Jean Doyle said. “He loved the campus and the kids. As a parent, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
She said her son specifically enjoyed studying the saxophone with well-regarded music performance studies Prof. Fred Hemke. But Joseph Doyle recently decided to switch his concentration to composition work after taking some time off from school, his mother said.
To become a music composition major, students have to submit three or four written pieces. Jean Doyle said her son almost had those works completed at the time of his death.
“He was still fiddling around with them,” she said. “He was never quite satisfied.”
NU’s School of Music also plans to hold a gathering to celebrate Joseph Doyle’s life, Music Dean Bernard Dobrowski said in an e-mail.
Jean Doyle said her son’s friends from high school have been congregating at her house, sharing stories and recollecting. She hopes his friends from NU will do the same when the family travels to Evanston after his funeral.
“I want to see his friends and see the school and get some closure,” she said.
Phi Psi members declined to comment Monday on any circumstances surrounding Doyle’s death or their memories of him. The Evanston Police Department’s investigation is ongoing.
