Nicholas William Paggi

Nicholas William Paggi, 24, currently of Cambridge, MA, born and raised on the Jersey Shore, passed away suddenly on April 26, 2017. Nicholas was born in Long Branch, NJ and grew up in Bayville, NJ. Nicholas was a graduate of Saint Joseph’s Elementary School, the 2011 Valedictorian of Monsignor Donovan High School in Toms River, NJ and received dual Bachelor degrees in Theoretical Physics and Computer Science in 2015 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has been a software engineer at Ab Initio in Lexington, Massachusetts for the past two years.

Nick will be sorely missed by his loving parents, Helga and John and his brothers Joseph and Alexander Paggi of Toms River, NJ; his paternal grandparents Bernice (pre-deceased) and Joseph Paggi of Poughkeepsie, NY; his maternal grandparents Renate and Alexander Hermos of Bayville, NJ; his close companion Jenny Sangliana; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, and high school and MIT friends.

Nick was first and foremost a scholar. He had an amazing aptitude for science and math and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He was a brilliant software programmer and problem solver. His code has been described as having grace and style. He rarely was seen without his trusty and colorful backpack that carried his Mac Book to capture spontaneous coding ideas and some light reading on topics such as string theory or Java classes.

Nick’s greatest joy was attending MIT. He was at home at MIT where he was in his element surrounded by fellow students and faculty of like mind and interests. He truly loved his friends and colleagues at MIT. His face radiated when he was engaged in active technical discussions on topics impenetrable to most of us. For his first two years, Nick resided in the legendary Bexley Hall. He worked at the D-Lab at MIT developing low-level software to provide medical care in developing countries. He continued to support the lab as a consultant after his graduation.

Nicholas was an avid lifelong sailor that spent countless hours plying the waters of the Toms River, Barnegat Bay, and Charles River. He was the 2006 and 2007 New Jersey State Junior Sunfish champion and a member of the Monsignor Donovan and MIT varsity sailing teams. He was a dock steward at Island Heights Yacht Club during the summers of 2010 and 2011. He enjoyed running, tennis, and biking to stay fit and filling his leisure hours reading and listening to a diverse range of music. Nicholas had a wicked sense of humor – typically dry, full of social insight, and always with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

The director of the group, Rich Fletcher, said Nick was a brilliant programmer who had worked on the group’s mobile health apps and wrote “difficult multi-threaded Android code that no one else could do.”

“He was a thoughtful and patient mentor to the other students in the group,” Fletcher said. “Nick was well-read, had a great sense of humor, and I always enjoyed having conversations with him discussing the future of technology and artificial intelligence. The world has lost a kind soul and great thinker. We will miss him very much.”

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Nicholas Paggi Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o Alexander Paggi, 30 Brooks Rd, Toms River, NJ 08753.

Visitation services will be held at Anderson and Campbell Funeral Home, 703 Main Street, Toms River on Monday, May 1 from 3:00 – 5:00 PM and 7:00 – 9:00 PM. A Catholic Mass will be said in Nicholas’s memory at Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, 711 Hooper Ave, Toms River, on Tuesday, May 2 at 10:00 AM.