Sophomore Ben Sassoon died last month after being struck by a non-passenger train in Long Island, N.Y.
From a toddler who refused to sneak around the house without his mother’s permission to a studious and social college student, Ben Sassoon was always mature for his age.
“Character-wise, he was the best that they come,” said Susan Sassoon, his mother.
Sassoon, 19, of Wantagh, N.Y., died March 28 after he was struck by a train in Long Island, N.Y. — an incident local police described as a suicide and one his friends and family said was unexpected.
“It was completely out of character; he was always a happy and well-adjusted person,” Susan Sassoon said. “We were shocked, absolutely shocked.”
Born April 20, 1991, in Wantagh, Ben Sassoon attended elementary, middle and high school in his hometown and Hofstra University for a year before transferring to this university in the fall as a sophomore accounting and finance major.
Susan Sassoon said her son had found a second home at this university. He was pledging the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at the time of his death.
“He always wanted University of Maryland,” she said. “I was an alumni, and he had visited the school, and he fell in love with the school the first time he saw it.”
Brian Gitlitz, a sophomore biomedical technology major at the University of Delaware, said the two had been best friends since their parents used to set up playdates after preschool.
“I’ve known him for 16 years now, and I guess when we were younger he didn’t talk a lot,” Gitlitz said. “But as he got older, he began to have a million friends. Everyone loved him.”
His friends and family said they will always remember his knack for the guitar, his talents on the soccer field and his good sense of humor — particularly his Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, Susan Sassoon said.
“He was funny,” Gitlitz said. “All my friends when we were home said that [about] his laugh — we absolutely loved it.”
Susan Sassoon said her son always made time for his friends and his fraternity brothers, despite his busy academic schedule.
“Everyone always said how smart he was — always willing to help,” she said. “He always treated everyone with so much respect.”
Sophomore architecture major Joe LaCugna, Ben Sassoon’s roommate, said even though the two hadn’t roomed long in their University Club apartment, Sassoon quickly became a constant presence in his life.
“We hit it off right away — he was a lot of fun,” he said. “We hung out, played games together, went to the gym together, played racquetball three times a week. … We saw each other all the time.”
Mathematics was his forte, Susan Sassoon said, and he often tutored his friends in the subject.
With a strong aptitude for math, Ben Sassoon was sure of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, she said.
“He took a year of accounting in high school. He just loved it. He aced the class. … That was his niche, that’s where he felt comfortable,” she said. “He saw himself as a CFO in the future.”
LaCunga said Sassoon had a professional demeanor down pat with the confidence of a savvy businessman much older than Sassoon’s years.
“His everyday life was an interview,” LaCugna said. “He really wanted to impress everybody, and he did.”
Ben Sassoon is survived by his parents, Moshe and Susan Sassoon, and sister, Amy, of Wantagh; his uncles and aunt, Howard and Robin Cheris, of Gaithersburg, and David Lifton, of Chicago; Shimon and Sharona Gitzlitz, of Ra’anana, Israel; and grandmothers Rachel Sassoon, of Ra’anana, and Marian Lifton, of Boca Raton, Fla.
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