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==Death== ==Death==
After an investigation and an ] by Cambridge police, Gale's death at the age of nineteen,<ref name="nationalpublicradio">{{cite news|last=Siegel|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Siegel|coauthors=Tovia Smith | title =Massachusetts Institute of Technology looks for ways to deal with the incidence of student suicides in recent years | work =] | publisher = ] | date =August 29, 2001 }}</ref> late on the evening of March 13, 1998, was ruled a suicide.<ref name="mitbulletin">{{cite news | title =Bulletin: Male Sophomore Falls to Death | work =] | publisher = ] | date =March 14, 1998 | url =http://tech.mit.edu/Bulletins/green.html | accessdate =2010-05-12 }}</ref> Gale was a ] at MIT at the time of his death.<ref>{{cite news| last =Herper | first = Matthew J. | title = Binge and Purge: Scolding students won't make them safer | work = ] | publisher = ] | date =November 1, 1999|url=http://reason.com/archives/1999/11/01/binge-and-purge|accessdate=2010-05-12}}</ref> For weeks, Gale had been asking classmates how to access the roof of MIT's tallest structure, the ].<ref name="mallia" /> On the blackboard of the MIT classroom in the Green Building, he wrote out ]'s equation for how an object accelerates as it falls, along with a sketch of a stick figure of someone tossing a chair. He signed the message, "Phil was here," picked up a chair, hurled it and then himself through a window on the fifteenth floor of the Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences building, commonly known as the Green Building.<ref name="hussain">{{cite journal| last = Hussain| first =Zareena | title = Gale Falls to Death from Green Building Classroom | journal =] | volume =118|issue=13 | publisher = ] | page = | date =March 17, 1998 | url = http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N13/adeath.13n.html | accessdate = 2010-05-12 }}</ref><ref name="landrigan">{{cite news | last = Landrigan | first = India F. | title = MIT Student Dead After Apparent Suicide |work=] |publisher=]| date = March 16, 1998|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1998/3/16/mit-student-dead-after-apparent-suicide/|accessdate=2010-05-12}}</ref> Eric Plotsky, a graduate of MIT, was inside the building watching television at the time of Gale's death, and heard a crashing sound.<ref name="nationalpublicradio" /> Plotsky recounted to ], " The windows of the building were sealed. So he actually had to throw a chair out the window to break it so that he could jump through. The noise that we heard was that chair hitting the ground. Some of the people in my dorm actually looked out the window in time to see him fall."<ref name="nationalpublicradio" /> After an investigation and an ] by Cambridge police, Gale's death at the age of nineteen,<ref name="nationalpublicradio">{{cite news|last=Siegel|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Siegel|coauthors=Tovia Smith | title =Massachusetts Institute of Technology looks for ways to deal with the incidence of student suicides in recent years | work =] | publisher = ] | date =August 29, 2001 }}</ref> late on the evening of March 13, 1998, was ruled a suicide.<ref name="mitbulletin">{{cite news | title =Bulletin: Male Sophomore Falls to Death | work =] | publisher = ] | date =March 14, 1998 | url =http://tech.mit.edu/Bulletins/green.html | accessdate =2010-05-12 }}</ref> Gale was a ] at MIT at the time of his death.<ref>{{cite news| last =Herper | first = Matthew J. | title = Binge and Purge: Scolding students won't make them safer | work = ] | publisher = ] | date =November 1, 1999|url=http://reason.com/archives/1999/11/01/binge-and-purge|accessdate=2010-05-12}}</ref> He had recently consulted an MIT psychiatrist, upon the advice of a campus adviser, in the hope of being prescribed drugs, but found the meeting unhelpful.<ref name="nethead"/> He had been drinking alcohol and using ] on a daily basis for some time, and had broken up with a girlfriend in February.<ref name="nethead"/> The day prior to his suicide, he had stayed up through the night, smoking pot, and by the morning of Friday 13th had begun to drink beer while continuing to smoke marijuana.<ref name="nethead"/>
For weeks, Gale had been asking classmates how to access the roof of MIT's tallest structure, the ].<ref name="mallia" /> On the blackboard of the MIT classroom in the Green Building, he wrote out ]'s equation for how an object accelerates as it falls, along with a sketch of a stick figure of someone tossing a chair. He signed the message, "Phil was here," picked up a chair, hurled it and then himself through a window on the fifteenth floor of the Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences building, commonly known as the Green Building.<ref name="hussain">{{cite journal| last = Hussain| first =Zareena | title = Gale Falls to Death from Green Building Classroom | journal =] | volume =118|issue=13 | publisher = ] | page = | date =March 17, 1998 | url = http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N13/adeath.13n.html | accessdate = 2010-05-12 }}</ref><ref name="landrigan">{{cite news | last = Landrigan | first = India F. | title = MIT Student Dead After Apparent Suicide |work=] |publisher=]| date = March 16, 1998|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1998/3/16/mit-student-dead-after-apparent-suicide/|accessdate=2010-05-12}}</ref> Eric Plotsky, a graduate of MIT, was inside the building watching television at the time of Gale's death, and heard a crashing sound.<ref name="nationalpublicradio" /> Plotsky recounted to ], " The windows of the building were sealed. So he actually had to throw a chair out the window to break it so that he could jump through. The noise that we heard was that chair hitting the ground. Some of the people in my dorm actually looked out the window in time to see him fall."<ref name="nationalpublicradio" />


"It was typical Phil. It's so like him to have planned a show," said an ex-girlfriend, ] student Christine Hrul, "He was so careful with things in his life, so methodical."<ref name="mallia" /> Students reported hearing the sound of breaking glass, then a splintering sound, and finally a scream which sounded like "an echoing wail".<ref name="Canellos">{{cite news | last = Canellos | first = Peter S. | title = Campus Suicides Leave Many Students Reelings MIT, Harvard, UMASS Coping with Tragedies | work = ] | publisher =] | date = March 24, 1998 }}</ref> "It was typical Phil. It's so like him to have planned a show," said an ex-girlfriend, ] student Christine Hrul, "He was so careful with things in his life, so methodical."<ref name="mallia" /> Students reported hearing the sound of breaking glass, then a splintering sound, and finally a scream which sounded like "an echoing wail".<ref name="Canellos">{{cite news | last = Canellos | first = Peter S. | title = Campus Suicides Leave Many Students Reelings MIT, Harvard, UMASS Coping with Tragedies | work = ] | publisher =] | date = March 24, 1998 }}</ref>

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Philip Gale
Philip Gale
Born1978
Los Angeles, California
Died(1998-03-13)March 13, 1998
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cause of deathSuicide
OccupationComputer programmer
Parent(s)David Gale,
Marie Gale

Philip Chandler Gale (1978, Los Angeles, California – March 13, 1998, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a pioneering internet software developer and computer prodigy, and avid musician. He was raised from birth as a Scientologist but later left Scientology after deciding it was not for him, and followed the postmodern religion Church of the SubGenius, which has been called a parody religion.

He earned roughly a million dollars worth of stock options for his innovative internet service provider (ISP) programs at EarthLink. Gale committed suicide on Friday the 13th of March 1998, falling to his death from a classroom window on the fifteenth floor of a building on the MIT campus.

Early life

Gale was raised from birth to age fourteen as a fourth generation Scientologist. He had a sister, Elizabeth Gale, and was the son of Marie Gale, who held several positions related to the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) and of Scientologists David Gale, a software programmer who died from a heart attack in 1995. Gale was profoundly affected by his father's death, and still struggling to come to terms with it at the time of his suicide.

Gale was educated at The Delphian School in Sheridan, Oregon, a private boarding school based on the ideas of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He started education at The Delphian School, at the age of eight, graduated from there at age 14 and was admitted to MIT at the age of fifteen. At MIT, he joined the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity as a freshman in the fall of 1994, and by the time of his suicide had chosen to major in music. Writing in The Generation of Ideas, Quentin Miller described Gale as "a brilliant musician".

Software programming

Gale took a break from MIT at the age of sixteen, working at EarthLink Network Inc. for a year, as director of research and development, after writing a key software program called Total Access at MIT. The software allowed EarthLink's internet servers to connect far more customers to the Internet, giving the firm a competitive advantage and enabling its ascent to the top ranks among ISPs, acquiring one million customers and a market worth of $2 billion. Before his seventeenth birthday, Gale earned stock options worth about a million dollars and a USD$70,000 salary at the Los Angeles-based company, which was run according to Hubbard's management principles. Gale abandoned his Scientology beliefs while he was at EarthLink, and developed an interest in the Church of the SubGenius, which specializes in debunking cults and has developed its own cult following.

Church of the SubGenius

At the time of his death Gale was no longer a Scientologist, and had not been one for years. According to Brian Ladner, his best friend at Earthlink, Gale became interested in the Church of the SubGenius. Ladner says he introduced Gale to Subgenius while they worked together at Earthlink and reports that Gale hung a poster of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, SubGenius' fictional spiritual leader, on his office door. Ladner said "Leaving Scientology was a traumatic experience. He was brought up thinking it was the only way," in a telephone interview with The Boston Herald. Gale's death was reported as "Scientologist-SubGenius Kills Self" by Rev. J.C. "Steve" Bevilacqua, Business Manager for the Church of the Subgenius.

Death

After an investigation and an autopsy by Cambridge police, Gale's death at the age of nineteen, late on the evening of March 13, 1998, was ruled a suicide. Gale was a sophomore at MIT at the time of his death. He had recently consulted an MIT psychiatrist, upon the advice of a campus adviser, in the hope of being prescribed drugs, but found the meeting unhelpful. He had been drinking alcohol and using marijuana on a daily basis for some time, and had broken up with a girlfriend in February. The day prior to his suicide, he had stayed up through the night, smoking pot, and by the morning of Friday 13th had begun to drink beer while continuing to smoke marijuana.

For weeks, Gale had been asking classmates how to access the roof of MIT's tallest structure, the Green Building. On the blackboard of the MIT classroom in the Green Building, he wrote out Isaac Newton's equation for how an object accelerates as it falls, along with a sketch of a stick figure of someone tossing a chair. He signed the message, "Phil was here," picked up a chair, hurled it and then himself through a window on the fifteenth floor of the Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences building, commonly known as the Green Building. Eric Plotsky, a graduate of MIT, was inside the building watching television at the time of Gale's death, and heard a crashing sound. Plotsky recounted to National Public Radio, " The windows of the building were sealed. So he actually had to throw a chair out the window to break it so that he could jump through. The noise that we heard was that chair hitting the ground. Some of the people in my dorm actually looked out the window in time to see him fall."

"It was typical Phil. It's so like him to have planned a show," said an ex-girlfriend, Wellesley College student Christine Hrul, "He was so careful with things in his life, so methodical." Students reported hearing the sound of breaking glass, then a splintering sound, and finally a scream which sounded like "an echoing wail".

In part, Gale's suicide note read "Presumably I have jumped from a tall building. . . I am not crazy, albeit driven to suicide. It is not about any single event, or person. It is about stubborn sadness, and a detached view of the world. I see my life—so much dreary, mundane, wasted time wishing upon unattainable goals—and I feel little attachment to the future. But it is not so bad, relatively. I exaggerate. In the end, it is that I am unwilling (sick of living) to live in mediocrity. And this is what I have chosen to do about it. . . take care world, Philip." Gale closed his handwritten suicide note, found at his apartment, with a smiley face and the words "And stay happy!"

Aftermath

Gale's suicide led to speculation on campus, and on the Internet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, about the role Gale's Scientologist upbringing might have played in his suicide. People Gale had been close to dismissed the notion, saying that Scientology had not been on his mind at the time he took his life.

People magazine featured Gale's story in a 2001 series of articles on suicides at MIT, describing him as a music major, "so prodigiously bright that he counted few of his much older peers as intellectual equals." In August 2001, National Public Radio program All Things Considered noted that in the wake of Gale's death, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had investigated how to deal with issues of student suicides. Eric Plotsky commented to National Public Radio, "In many ways, suicide has been looked on as something that's just part and parcel of life at the institute. That ingrained thinking historically, I think, has prevented administrators from looking at suicide as a problem to which there might be some reasonable response." The investigative report released by MIT identified deficiencies within its mental health program.

Mark Ebner, an investigative journalist, was hired in 1999 by Rolling Stone to do an article on the death of Philip Gale. The Church of Scientology sent Rolling Stone a file with information critical of Ebner, and Rolling Stone decided not to publish Ebner's piece. According to Ebner, he was instructed by his assigning editor that the owner of the Rolling Stone publication, Jann Wenner, was a friend of celebrity Scientology member John Travolta. New Times LA published a version of the piece in 1999. In 2008, the full article was published by Gawker as part of its "Unspiked" project, and on Ebner's website.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ebner, Mark (April 29, 1999). "Death of a Nethead". New Times Los Angeles. Gawker. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  2. ^ "Bulletin: Male Sophomore Falls to Death". The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. March 14, 1998. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  3. Marlan, Tori (August 15, 2002). "Death of a Scientologist". Chicago Reader. Chicago, Illinois: Creative Loafing Inc. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  4. Gonnet, Roger (1998). La secte: secte armée pour la guerre. Alban. pp. 218–219. ISBN 2911751043.
  5. ^ Chung, Jennifer (April 3, 1998). "Gale's Death Prompts Questions on Scientology". The Tech. 118 (16). Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 1. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  6. Gale, Marie (June 27, 1993). "Report abuse by psychologists". The Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Publishing Company. p. A15.
  7. ^ Mallia, Joseph (May 21, 1998). "Why did this brilliant MIT student jump to his death?". Boston Herald. Herald Media Inc. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  8. ^ Krueger, Curtis (November 10, 1991). "Members laud schooling, church's no-drug stance; Series: Scientology's children". St. Petersburg Times. p. 13-A.
  9. ^ "Student dies in fall from Bldg 54". MIT news. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. March 18, 1998. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  10. ^ Coloma, Sonny (November 28, 2003). "Vector: Descent into despair". BusinessWorld. BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation. p. 5.
  11. Miller, Quentin (2004). The Generation of Ideas. Heinle. p. 465. ISBN 1413000126.
  12. ^ Hussain, Zareena (March 17, 1998). "Gale Falls to Death from Green Building Classroom". The Tech. 118 (13). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  13. Bevilacqua, J.C. (June 1999). "Scientologist-SubGenius Kills Self". SubGenius.com. Church of the SubGenius. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  14. ^ Siegel, Robert (August 29, 2001). "Massachusetts Institute of Technology looks for ways to deal with the incidence of student suicides in recent years". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. Herper, Matthew J. (November 1, 1999). "Binge and Purge: Scolding students won't make them safer". Reason. Reason Foundation. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  16. Landrigan, India F. (March 16, 1998). "MIT Student Dead After Apparent Suicide". Harvard Crimson. Harvard University. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  17. Canellos, Peter S. (March 24, 1998). "Campus Suicides Leave Many Students Reelings MIT, Harvard, UMASS Coping with Tragedies". The Boston Globe. The New York Times Company.
  18. Ortega, Tony (October 9, 2008). "Gawker Gets Punk'd". The Village Voice: Runnin' Scared. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2010-05-12.

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