Christopher Meyer

MEYER--Christopher, age 28, died August 8th, 2009 of a brain tumor that was first diagnosed in 2002. During those seven years, his illness never diminished the power of his intellect and he never defined himself by his illness. He lived all of his life with grace, humor and a sunny disposition. In 2003 he finished his B.A. in art history at Stanford and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa. He was a semi-finalist for a Rhodes scholarship. He was a sports writer for The Stanford Daily covering men's tennis. Chris had been a member of the 1999-2000 team when Stanford was the NCAA Champion as well as the 2001-2 team when he returned from spending his junior year in Paris. While in Paris, Chris had been an intern at the Musee D'Orsay and Rodin Museum. He spent the summers of 2002 and 2003 in Antibes, France as a counselor for Abbey Road, an exchange program for American teenagers In 2004, he graduated from Stanford with a M.A. in Humanities. He was a research assistant at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. In 2005, he began a Ph.D. program in art history at Harvard and received a Harvard Presidential Fellowship. He also received a Mellon Fellowship that same year. While at Harvard, he successfully completed his course work, acted as a teaching fellow, submitted his qualifying paper, received a Mellon summer fellowship at the Getty Museum in 18th Century studies and completed his orals. This year he finished most of the first chapter of his dissertation. Most importantly during those seven years, he met and married Monica Lara Cordoba. Christopher and Monica brought out the best in each other just as Christopher has brought out the best in all of us and just as he has always demanded the best of himself. We are going to miss him so very much. Christopher is survived by his wife, Monica, of San Francisco; his parents, Michael and Tina, of Berkeley; his brother, Joshua and his sister-in-law Fleur and his nephew, Theodore, of Paris, France.