John Owen Habib, who spent summers in Amagansett and had many close friends here, died on April 11 following a catastrophic fall while hiking in Morocco. He was 21.
Mr. Habib, who was a junior at Brown University, grew up in Saunderstown, R.I., and attended Quest Montessori Elementary and Middle School and the Portsmouth Abbey School, where he was editor in chief of The Beacon and created its first online platform for newscasts, podcasts, and other content. He co-founded the Mind and Market Club to engage his peers at Portsmouth Abbey “in discussions that foster interest in business, economics and business psychology,” his family wrote. While a student there, he developed “a love of classical Russian writers like Tolstoy and literary visionaries including Dante and Milton,” the family said. “It was there that he first explored his own spirituality and was proudly involved in Catholic spiritual life and the Maronite church of Rhode Island.”
At Brown, he was studying Chinese, philosophy, and economics. He was a co-founder of the college’s Private Equity Club, and contributed to its Journal of Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was also a member of the Brown/Rhode Island School of Design Arab Society, the Economics Department Undergraduate Group, and Brown’s chess club. The day after his accident, his family said they “received word that he had been accepted into the most prestigious summer banking internship program, the Barclays Financial Sponsors group in New York City.”
“John Owen was joy and curiosity personified,” his older brother, Jordan Habib, wrote. “He celebrated his friends, challenged and encouraged them to be better people, to dare more, try harder, and treat themselves and others with grace and respect. He loved to laugh, was an exceptional chef, an extraordinary conversationalist, and gave the most thoughtful gifts. He was never afraid of doing the impossible and challenged others to do the same.”
A talented self-taught guitar player, the young man was thrilled to have recently taken several guitar lessons with one of his favorite jazz fusion players, Alex Hutchings. Last summer, he realized a longtime dream to live and work in New York City.
Mr. Habib was passionate about travel and exploring the world. “His magnetism, charm, and love for his fellow human beings led people from all walks of life to readily share their lives with him,” his family said. “Even animals gravitated toward John Owen. . . .”
Mr. Habib was born in Cambridge, Mass., on March 11, 2002, to Khalil Habib and Cressida Bainton-Habib. The family spends summers here at a house on Further Lane that had been owned by his grandmother, the late Aileen Moody Bainton, and his great-grandparents before her. The family are longtime members of the Amagansett Beach Association, where Mr. Habib could often be found, or attending junior activities at the Maidstone Club, where his grandmother was a member.
Mr. Habib “was deeply proud of his Lebanese heritage and his family connection to the Bahamas,” the family wrote, and loved his summers in Amagansett at the home owned by his mother and uncle Ken Bainton.
“John Owen held a singular talent to connect with people born in vastly different circumstances, from the deserts of Morocco and the lush hills of Lebanon, to the streets of China and the hallowed halls of Brown University,” the family wrote. He befriended those in need and was “driven to improve their lives and know their stories.” He founded the Island Time Company, a nonprofit clothing company whose proceeds benefited the Bahamas Hurricane Restoration Fund, and helped to review the college essays of victims of the Syrian conflict.
In a recent letter to his parents, the president of Brown University wrote, “Your son led a truly remarkable life, and has left behind an extraordinary legacy. We know the measure of a person is most often found in the difference they make in people’s lives, and John Owen has certainly made a difference.”
“For those of us left behind, when faced with a challenging decision, when we need courage to reach for the thing we most want, the hand we feel at our back will be John Owen, encouraging us to dare,” said the family. “Because life, after all, is short. And this is how his legacy lives on through us.”
Services were held at noon on Monday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Augusta, Me. The family will establish a fund in his name “to help others have access to the opportunities that he had himself at Brown.” Contributions can be made on a GoFundMe page set up by the family at bit.ly/41Ybo2H.
