Friday December 9, 2022
By Travis Andersen Globe
The Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick, Maine. ROBERT F. BUKATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A first-year student at Bowdoin College who loved science and was devoted to helping others died suddenly on Saturday after a severe allergic reaction to nuts, officials said.
“I write with heartbreaking news,” Bowdoin president Clayton Rose said in a note to the campus community on Sunday. Omar Osman, of Lewiston, Maine, “died on the way to the hospital as paramedics and others attempted to assist him. Initial indications point to some kind of medical distress as the cause of death.”
Osman was a first-generation American of Somali descent who was born in North Carolina and graduated from Lewiston High School, Rose said. There he was involved in a number of activities, including the National Honor Society and Model United Nations.
Osman was also an artist who painted murals at the high school to give the school a distinctive style, Rose said.
In a note to the Lewiston Public Schools community on Monday, Superintendent K. Jake Langlais said Osman had a “severe nut allergy” and “was not able to get the necessary medical attention in time while on the way to the hospital” after an unexpected exposure.
Osman was a “kind soul” who touched many people and who attended Bowdoin on a full scholarship, he said.
“His ability to lead by example while his humble personality shined was second to none,” Langlais wrote. “He was a student representative to the School Committee through the pandemic. Omar was vice president of his class. He was a leader in robotics competitions, coding equipment for rebuild after rebuild” and was “a tireless giver” to others, Langlais said.
“He was so much more than we can articulate,” Langlais wrote. “We will miss him.”
Bowdoin officials are providing support to Osman’s family, roommate, and others close to him, Rose said.
“Omar loved science and, in just three short months at Bowdoin, he had developed a keen interest in information technology and planned to major in computer science,” Rose wrote. “Of his bigger dreams, he wrote, ‘I want to be someone anyone and everyone can rely on and can know that I will always be there to help.’”
The loss of Osman is “sudden and unimaginable” for his family, Rose said.
“Our hearts go out to them, to Omar’s classmates and friends, and to everyone in the Bowdoin community who is feeling his loss,” Rose said.