Michael Rust-Smith.
Dancer, scientist, artist, free spirit. Born Dec. 4, 1990, in Washington. Died May 9 in Vancouver while swimming, aged 19.
Michael Rust-Smith grew up moving around the world. This experience gave him a lifelong taste for travel and adventure, an abiding love of the natural world and a strong foundation in the travelling circus that was his family.
From the earliest age, tracking down lizards and flying ants in his garden in Africa, Michael was fascinated with the complexity of nature. As he grew older this evolved into a deep engagement in the natural sciences, combined with a more philosophical curiosity about the significance of life.
When Michael was just six months old the family moved to Kathmandu for his father's work. Michael's first words were in Nepali, traditional dahl baat was his first solid food and with it he ingested a lifetime attachment to all things Asian.
After a year back in Washington the family moved to Malawi, where Michael spent five idyllic years growing up with his older brother David and older sister Jessie.
In 2000, the family settled in Canada. At Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa, Michael was highly sociable and developed the traits that would define the rest of his life: his creativity, a serious engagement in science and his idiosyncratic sense of style.
Michael's tastes were eclectic, whether dressing as a Regency dandy for a high-school dance or in elaborate ninja costume, listening to Japanese jazz or African hip hop. He was an accomplished artist, forever filling sketchbooks, and the multicoloured sneakers he painted for his many friends were known far and wide.
Michael's love of nature led him to a more profound concern with the meaning of life and the inter-connectedness of all life forms. He used to say he was perfectly comfortable that the arrangement of atoms that was Michael would one day cease to exist. He believed that what was important was to do good in life, to seek the truth and to have as much fun as possible. Michael could never be accused of not living life to the fullest - whether break-dancing at concerts, dreadlocks flying in the wind, carrying girlfriends on his back across the beach, rock climbing, snowboarding or just walking across the park on his hands.
In 2008, Michael moved to Vancouver to attend the University of British Columbia. He loved walking or bicycling alone through Pacific Spirit Regional Park, photographing his beloved insects and fungi. Michael was just embarking on a promising scientific career, receiving a research grant to work with one of his professors this summer - a job he had just started the week before he died.
Michael died doing things he loved. He had just completed a 10-kilometre run and jumped into the water to swim when he accidentally drowned. He lived a life full of joy, adventure and love, and brought many people great happiness in his 19 years.
By Jim Smith and Jacquie Rust, Michael's parents.