Larkin Brogan '09 dies in Berkeley, Calif.

Larkin Brogan ’09, an architecture student who played catcher on the women’s softball team, was found dead in Berkeley, Calif., on Monday. She was 25.

The Coroner’s Bureau of the Alameda County Sheriff's office on Thursday ruled the death a suicide but was unable to identify a date of death. Her body was found by police officers in an apartment building adjacent to the campus, a police dispatcher said.

Brogan grew up in Pasadena, Calif., and attended the Mayfield Junior School and the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, according to a statement from her family. Brogan was pursuing a master’s degree in architecture at the College of Environmental Design at University of California, Berkeley at the time of her death.

At Princeton, she was a member of the Cap & Gown Club and played softball during her freshman and sophomore years.

Family and friends described Brogan as a young woman who was always positive, kindhearted, and friendly. Her parents Kevin and Nena Brogan, her brothers Chase and J.T. and her sister Abbey spent Wednesday reflecting and sharing memories of Larkin.

“She had a joyous childhood. She was a very happy, creative and fun girl,” her younger brother J.T. Brogan said.

Larkin was a “tomboy” from when she was very young, J.T. said. She insisted on wearing a backward baseball cap all the time, even at soccer practice, causing the team to change the rules so that she could wear the cap on the soccer field.

J.T. and Larkin were the middle children of the family and spent many years of their childhoods playing together. “She had a really dry and witty sense of humor,” J.T. said.

Her sense of humor was a quality that her family, friends and teammates admired.

“It is very rare to find someone that can focus and get as much done as Larkin and maintain a sense of humor,” her older brother Chase Brogan said.

At Princeton, her teammates and friends remembered her for her positive spirit.

“She was a very kind and supportive teammate more than anything else. That’s what I loved about her,” said Kristin Arguedas ’11, who was on the team.

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“Larkin was one of the most caring and sensitive people I knew,” said Maureen Barron, the softball coach who recruited and coached Larkin. She always made her teammates laugh and was a good teammate and friend to everyone, she explained.

“It’s heartbreaking that she is gone, but I think that every one of us on the Princeton softball family is honored to be part of her life,” Barron said. “She touched us all in so many different ways.”

Erin Ebe ’09, a close friend of Larkin who played softball together in high school, was recruited to Princeton alongside her. Ebe recalled Larkin making a life-size cutout of Ebe’s boyfriend, who could not make it to one of the formals the girls were attending. Larkin spent hours working on a “life-size Todd” in a tuxedo that greeted Ebe back in her room. Ebe called it “one of my best memories ever.”

This creativity was apparent in Larkin’s academic work as well. Larkin studied architecture and wrote her thesis about the work of British architect Cedric Price under architecture professor Mario Gandelsonas. J.T. said Larkin’s interest in architecture reflected her creativity. In middle school, the family noticed her beginning to draw and driving herself to artistic pursuits. Her inner creativity emerged as she engaged architecture; she loved designing and creating, he added.

After graduating from Princeton, she worked at an architecture firm in Los Angeles, Calif., for a year and a half. Soon after, Brogan took an opportunity to move to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she lived for seven months, to work for Nan, Inc. in construction management. The work in Honolulu allowed her “to put her design skills in a more practical approach,” J.T. said.

After her time in Honolulu, she returned to Berkeley to pursue her master's degree.

“She was an incredibly driven person,” Chase said. “She was known for her high fives and for her outgoing personality,” Chase explained. If anyone was able to reach out to her, she would take them in and give them a big hug, he said.

A funeral service will be held on Tuesday at the San Marino Community Church in San Marino, Calif.