Samuel Butterfield

Samuel Josiah Butterfield, 23, died May 4 at his home in Boston. Sam was the cherished son of Fox Butterfield and Elizabeth Mehren of Hingham, and the beloved brother of Ethan Butterfield and Sarah Bromma, both of Washington, D.C. Sam was a 2008 graduate of Hingham High School, where he served as editor of The Harborlight, the school newspaper. He pitched for the HHS Varsity baseball team and played on many town and regional sports teams. Sam earned his bachelors degree in 2012 from Hampshire College. In a family of journalists, Sam stood out as the star. He began writing for the Hingham Journal at age 15. He reported for the Springfield Republican and often wrote front-page stories for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette during a summer internship there. In addition, Sam worked as an editor at Vietnam.net in Hanoi, an Internet news outlet sponsored by the Vietnamese government. Sams byline also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Harvard Universitys Nieman Reports and the Maneater, the student newspaper at the University of Missouri, where Sam studied for part of his college freshman year. While attending Hampshire, part of the five-college consortium in Amherst, Ma., Sam broke new ground by working as a reporter and editor for The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper at U-Mass. Amherst. Eventually the Collegian was moved to change its constitution to allow the name of Sam, a non-U-Mass. student, to be listed on the papers masthead. In his farewell column as the papers editor (http://dailycollegian.com/2012/04/30/from-missouri-to-massachusetts-the-butterfield-story/), Sam outed himself as a Hampshire student. Sam showed great courage in confronting a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes during his junior year at Hingham High. His death occurred just one day short of the year-anniversary of an accident on the campus of Hampshire College that left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Bold, gregarious and blessed with a love of laughter, Sam leaves behind legions of devastated friends. He traveled widely, backpacking through Europe soon after graduating from Hingham High, and made new friends wherever he went. He loved music, and was especially passionate about the sounds and culture of New Orleans. Sam is survived by family in the United States, Canada and Europe. He will be missed greatly as well by his other mother, Susan Menchin Smith, Sams nanny for the first 14 years of his life. Sams most lasting legacy will be his indomitable spirit, his unyielding senses of adventure, his quick wit and curiosity and the love he brought to those around him with his easy, generous smile. Donations in Sams honor may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, any program that benefits youth sports, or to the charity of your choice.