In September 2007, vibrant campus leader and first-year Yale Law student Joseph M. Hanzich ’06 passed away of a sudden heart attack in New Haven. Today, some of his close friends and family are working in conjunction with Harvard to ensure that his passion for health policy survives in perpetuity.

Shortly after Hanzich’s passing, plans coalesced to create “The Joey Hanzich Memorial Undergraduate Travel and Research Fund,” which will provide money for juniors and seniors pursuing a summer internship in the fields of global or public health.

“What [we] really wanted to capture was what was so important to Joey—namely public health, health policy, and global health,” said Joan P. Curhan, director of undergraduate programs in health policy at the Kennedy School, who helped friends of Hanzich’s initiate the process.

According to Curhan, in order to have a memorial fund continue in perpetuity at Harvard—rather than having donations finance students only until the money collected is used up—$50,000 must be raised within approximately one year of starting the fund. If this goal is reached, the fund can become part of the University’s endowment and will be offered indefinitely.

After donations flowed in for a short period following Hanzich’s passing, momentum began to fade, she said, but recently efforts have been reinvigorated.

The Harvard-Cambridge program, through which Hanzich earned a masters in public health in the year following his graduation from the College, called Curhan and offered to donate $5,000 to the fund immediately and also provide the remainder if $40,000 was raised.

Outreach efforts to Hanzich’s friends began once again, and Kirstin Woody— who studied health policy with him at Cambridge—decided to dedicate her effort to complete Ironman Arizona this April to Hanzich, who had enthusiastically supported her intention to train.

After running, swimming, and biking the 140.6-mile race in 14 hours and 45 minutes, wearing a jersey emblazoned with “For Joey” on the back, Woody said she will be sending checks totaling nearly $26,000 to the fund.

Other friends of Hanzich’s are continuing the drive to raise money by reaching out to alumni primarily from the Classes of 2005 and 2006.

“[The Hanzich family has] hope and belief that this is going to happen, and truly that’s very representative of Joey and everything that he’d done,” Woody said. “He was so passionate about making things better even when so much adversity was in your way.”

Indeed, Curhan said memorial funds very rarely actually collect enough money to become endowed.

“Joey’s passing has demonstrated the real meaning of legacy,” said Hanzich’s father, Dorian Hanzich. “He has left a legacy and people are carrying that legacy—it’s something we can really hold on to.”

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.