Landen Prince

Landen Prince, age 20, died on July 23, 2024 at home in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington D.C. He was a rising junior at Howard University, where he was an avid student of economics and finance.

Landen was charismatic and a natural leader. He moved with ease in many circles, embracing his mixed Jamaican and European American heritage, while forging his own path. He had a variety of interests, from futures trading and quantum physics to music making in his recording studio, where he produced stunning soundtracks for friends and clients, echoing the percussive musical talent he displayed as a boy while collaborating with his sister on rap skits and rock songs. He had a relentless math mind and spent long hours inventing algorithms for his trades, which would rise meteorically in value, and then fall devastatingly. Landen’s euphoria would fade to despondency when fortunes reversed, and he struggled with mental health.

Landen had a strong sense of fashion from an early age. He owned a dazzling array of sneakers, jackets and jeans, and would don a suit and tie for Thanksgiving dinners. His creative wardrobe and winsome smile turned heads. As he got older, he would cut his hair in the latest fashion, sometimes updating his aesthetic every few weeks with new colors, fresh cuts, or sparkling jewelry. Later he would make a foray into fashion design, creating unique and colorful artwork on cotton T-shirts, and capturing his creations with elaborate photo shoots.

His peers admired him and his teachers liked him, often writing in report cards that “Landen is funny, insightful and a joy to have in class.” Some teachers would say he had the philosophic insight of a sage, always questioning the nature of reality and the status quo. He was restless and wanted things to be different, to be perfect.

Landen was a precocious child and a courageous athlete, endowed with extraordinary balance and poise. His first sport was ice hockey and more than once, he would glide with the puck into the goal just as the buzzer sounded. In high school, Landen played football and was named MVP in his senior year, perhaps because of his preternatural ability to change the course of a game mid-stream. His triumphant turnarounds were miraculous to watch. You would see his team lose heart, and then you would see Landen crouch, focus, and intercept the ball with the sheer force of his will. The crowd would cheer as he broke away from the pack and took flight, football tucked under his right elbow as “Touchdown, Landen Prince!” reverberated through the stadium. Landen could turn a game around on a dime. We all knew that, and thought surely he could do the same with the mental illness. Right up to the day he died, you could find Landen at a neighborhood basketball game,shooting hoops with the bros, dodging, faking and spinning and – out of the blue – shooting an improbable three-pointer to lead his team to victory.

Landen had big dreams and deep passions. He would sometimes half-joke that “the sky is the limit,” but he believed that, and he believed in magic. As a boy, he mastered card tricks and sleight of hand. You never knew when Landen would pull a rabbit out of a hat, but he always did!

Most of all, Landen had a big heart. He loved his family and his friends, and was drawn to help younger children. You would see him on the playground playing catch with a kid who had been left out. As a teenager he coached at Sidwell Friends summer camp, and as a college student he offered personal training to young athletes. It pained Landen to see suffering, and he would offer his freshly ordered tacos from Burrito Brothers to a man in need on the street. He did not look away from pain, and he was quick to forgive those who wronged him. Landen was a seeker of faith, and explored spiritual traditions, including Unitarian, Islam, Catholicism, Buddhism, Episcopalian, and Mormon (Latter-day Saint). Landen wanted to know what was beyond.

On a family bicycle trip through the mountains of southern Virginia in 2014, as Landen peddled breathlessly up an interminable mountain pass, he wanted to quit and get off his bike. His mother told him that if he made it to the top, he would see God. Breathing heavy, he kept on, saying “No mom, I’m going to see God on the other side of the mountain.” Indeed, upon reaching the crest, Landen and his sister descended the narrow downward pass with tires whizzing and voices whooping with the pure joy of velocity, as if taking flight. You could put nothing past Landen, and he may even now be soaring in the heavens, looking down on us and laughing at the cosmic joke.

Landen leaves behind his mother, Lanae Holbrook; his father, Haldane (“Balvin”) Prince; his sister, Helene Prince; and a half-sister, Santanya Prince. He also leaves behind aunts, uncles, cousins, a nephew, and many friends. He is preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, Jay Mack Holbrook and DeLene Clark Holbrook and his paternal grandparents, Percival Prince and Helena Dorothy Jenkins Prince. He is missed greatly by all.

A memorial service for Landen Prince will be held on Saturday, August 24, 2024 at 4 p.m. at the Grace Chapel across from the National Cathedral. His remains were cremated on his 21st birthday, July 29, 2024. In lieu of flowers, we invite donation to Black Men Heal, a nonprofit grassroots organization that provides free access to mental health treatment, education, and community resources to underserved communities of color. Suicide is the leading cause of death of black men age 15-24. Follow the “Donate Now” link at https://blackmenheal.org/ and scroll down to “Honor or Remember someone with your gift” and type Landen Prince.