Dana Dourdeville ’15 loved to build things for others.
“He was brilliant, and he was always thinking about different things he could construct,” said Brittany Comunale ’16, a former classmate. “It was fascinating to watch him think and explore new ideas.”
In interviews, friends and family members remembered Dourdeville — who died this month on a solo duck-hunting trip off the Massachusetts coast — as a talented runner and gifted engineer passionate about creating for the sake of the community.
Dourdeville repaired a sculpture for a struggling peer in VISA 0100: “Studio Foundation,” said Comunale, a Herald photo editor. As part of the Brown Engineering After School Team, he crafted a functional car out of bagels to the delight of Providence high school students, said Lori Siao ’15, a fellow team member. He installed composting latrines and solar panels in low-income communities in Peru last summer, said his brother Jared.
Whether running, engineering, unicycling or forging metal in his garage, Dourdeville was remembered as a quiet leader who brought passion to his every endeavor.
On the track
Dourdeville broke running records and never bragged afterward, said Bill Tilden, athletic director of Old Rochester Regional High School and Dourdeville’s former track coach.
As captain of his high school track team, Dourdeville won both the mile and the two-mile in record times to help Old Rochester earn its first Division 4 state championship, Tilden said. At the end of the meet, he joked and bonded with members of rival teams.
“You’d go to track meets and kids from other teams would be hanging out with him,” Tilden said. “He was just one of those people you gravitated to.”
Dourdeville originally came to the University intent on running for the men’s cross country team. He ran on the team for the first semester of his first year before leaving to devote more time to his academics, said Tim Springfield, head coach for men’s cross country.
“I enjoyed working with him quite a bit,” Springfield said. “He worked hard and was very well-liked. He left the team on great terms with everyone.”
Mark McGurrin ’15, a former teammate, said Dourdeville contributed his “funny” and “clever” personality to the team.
Evan Roelke ’15, another former teammate, said Dourdeville maintained camaraderie with the runners even after he left. “Any time he saw any of us on campus, he would go out of his way to stop and chat,” he said.
On a bright, clear day last May — months after he left the competitive world of Division I college athletics — Dourdeville ran a half marathon for fun, said Alexia Stylianou ’15, a close friend.
Stylianou said Dourdeville signed up for the race at the “last minute” to support her.
“He was so humble and encouraging about it,” she said. “He finished like an hour before I did and waited for me at the finish line.”
Building a reputation
The engineering community at the University embraced Dourdeville as a talented scholar and leader, wrote Karen Haberstroh, director of STEM outreach and assistant professor of engineering, in an email to The Herald.
Dourdeville served as an “excellent” teaching assistant for ENGN 0030: “Introduction to Engineering,” Haberstroh wrote.
“Dana understood the impact that engaged TAs can have on the students, and he took his job seriously,” she wrote. “I know that the students looked up to Dana as a role model, both inside and outside of the classroom.”
Dumichel Harley ’17 said he always looked forward to attending Dourdeville’s Monday office hours.
Dourdeville was “approachable” and made an effort to connect on a personal level, Harley said. “He would not stop until a student understood the subject matter.”
Dourdeville excelled in his role as co-president of Engineers Without Borders, a group that aims to use engineering to improve society and the environment, said Briana Garcia ’16, a group member.
He made friends with all the members and started each meeting with an “engaging” round of trivia, Garcia said. He also stood out as a leader of the Brown Engineering After School Team, a subset of Engineering Without Borders that teaches engineering principles to Providence high school students, she added.
He once helped a high school student use mathematical principles to build a large flying saucer, Garcia said, adding that he helped the student realize science can be “really cool.”
Dourdeville also applied his engineering skills to an internship in Peru last summer with Alianza Arkana, a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the Amazon, said his brother Jared. He built composting latrines and installed solar panels that allowed children in two impoverished communities to charge their laptops, he added.
Back at Brown, Dourdeville flew through courses that counted as engineering concentration requirements, Siao said. “He knew material off the top of his head that I was struggling to understand, but he was so humble about it,” she said.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a guy that was more universally liked in the engineering department,” Stylianou said. “It’s a pretty tight-knit department, and his loss is really strongly felt.”
‘A man of the earth’
Hunting, fishing, blacksmithing and juggling — Dourdeville dabbled in a variety of hands-on pursuits.
“One of his goals was to have fun in interesting ways, not necessarily just the typical ways of what college students do, like parties,” said Divya Sahajwalla ’15.
For instance, Dourdeville thought it would be fun to build a battering ram for a group project in an archaeology class, she said.
Growing up near the Massachusetts coast, Dourdeville loved spending time on the water, whether he was fishing, kayaking or waterskiing, said his brother Jared.
“Being around the water was a very prominent theme in all of our lives,” he said, noting that their mother is a marine biologist.
In high school, Dourdeville taught himself several trades, such as juggling, unicycling, blacksmithing and martial arts, Jared said, adding that he built his own forge in the garage so he could build various metal creations from home. He was also known to ambush family members with his latest martial arts moves. He continued to pursue these passions in college, riding his unicycle around campus and forging a wrought-iron animal head for a Christmas present this year.
“He loved doing things people probably wouldn’t expect” that often related to nature or craftsmanship, Tilden said. “I guess you could say he was a man of the earth.”
Dourdeville’s brother Jared agreed with this sentiment. “He wasn’t afraid to do his own thing,” he said. “He had this full confidence in who he was.”
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