2000s

Joshua John-Henry Hicks ’09

Joshua John-Henry Hicks ’09, a seminary student and a talented and versatile musician, was born on October 3, 1984, in Boston, MA. A son of the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey D. and Rosetta Richardson Hicks, he grew up in the Boston suburbs. Plagued by severe health problems throughout his young years, including life-threatening asthma attacks and food allergies (bread, rice, dairy products, seafood, and even peanut butter), he became a familiar figure at local hospitals. Deprived of a normal childhood because of his illnesses, and mature beyond his years, perhaps because of them, he turned to extensive reading and to music, in which he found a great joy that he was eager to share with others. He wrote music, played piano, bass, and drums, took violin lessons, and played guitar with local bands. In addition, he had a splendid voice and sang in church and school choirs.

“Josh” Hicks, widely and fondly known at Hamilton as “Jicks,” attended Brookline High School and was graduated from Quincy High School. He came to the College on a Posse Foundation scholarship in 2004. He joined the Emerson Literary Society and became a member of the Choir as well as the Buffers. When he sang on the Hill for the first time, during matriculation in the Kirkland Cottage, he made such an impression on President Joan Stewart that she would distinctly remember it years later. Josh Hicks exuded joy with his positive attitude in the face of all his difficulties, and with his personal warmth, broad smile, and contagious laugh.

Josh Hicks majored in religious studies and, following his graduation in 2009, entered Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, intending to prepare for the priesthood of the Anglican Church in North America. He was pursuing his master’s in divinity when, on April 6, 2012, he apparently suffered a severe allergic reaction to something he ate and died at the age of 27. Besides his father and mother, he is survived by his stepmother, Kathleen Hicks; two sisters, Meredith Eppinger and Iris Hicks; and his brother, Geoffrey F. Hicks ­’09. At a memorial service held in the College ­Chapel, friends remembered “Jicks,” a young man “frail of body and strong of soul,” who “put the human in humanity.”