'A Radiant Light:' Grieving Raskin Family Remembers Late Son

SILVER SPRING, MD — Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and his wife, Sarah, opened up on Monday about their late son, Tommy, who died by suicide last week at the age of 25.

In an obituary posted to Medium, the grieving couple remembered Tommy as having "a perfect heart, a perfect soul, a riotously outrageous and relentless sense of humor, and a dazzling radiant mind."

The Democratic lawmaker — whose district encompasses parts of Montgomery, Frederick, and Carroll counties — first announced the death of his son on New Year's Eve. In their heart-wrenching tribute published Monday, the Raskins confirmed that Tommy, a second-year student at Harvard Law School, succumbed after years of battling depression.

"On the last hellish brutal day of that godawful miserable year of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people all over the world died alone in bed in the darkness from an invisible killer disease ravaging their bodies and minds, we also lost our dear, dear, beloved son, Hannah and Tabitha's beloved irreplaceable brother, a radiant light in this broken world," the Raskins wrote.

The couple said their son — an avid vegan and animal lover — struggled with depression in his 20s, adding that the illness was "a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him."

Despite his struggles with depression, the pair said Tommy will be remembered as a "daring outspoken defender of all outcasts and kids in trouble."

While a student at Montgomery Blair High School, Tommy co-founded a peer-to-peer tutoring program called Bliss and spent hours tutoring his fellow students in math and English. On prom night, he threw a dinner party for two dozen classmates, including some who were date-less, and they all went to prom together.

"He hated cliques and social snobbery, never had a negative word for anyone but tyrants and despots, and opposed all malicious gossip, stopping all such gossipers with a trademark Tommy line — 'forgive me, but it's hard to be a human,'" his obituary read.

Tommy graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts, like his mother, and then went to law school at Harvard University.

He is survived by his sisters, Hannah and Tabitha, and his grandparents, Arlene Bloom and Lynn Raskin. Dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends will also carry on his memory.

Shortly after Tommy's death, the Raskins announced the Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for People and Animals. They said the fund will distribute money on a semi-annual basis to causes and charities he championed.

Resources for Help

• The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
• Crisis Text Line: Text 741741
• Maryland Crisis Connect: Call 211 and press option 1 or text 898-211
• Montgomery County Hotline: Call 301-738-2255
• Trevor Lifeline: Call 1-866-488-7386
• Trans Lifeline US: Call 1-877-565-8860 // Canada: Call 1-877-330-6366