Lisa Chang '93, a presidential scholar who had returned to school after a two year battle with leukemia, died Friday night at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She was 22 years old.
Chang went into cardiac arrest while swimming in the Connecticut River Friday evening. She had a history of heart trouble related to her leukemia, according to her doctor Alan Kritz.
Kritz, a specialist in hematology and oncology, said Chang's leukemia had been in remission and that her death was unexpected.
Chang matriculated with with the Class of 1993 in September 1989 but left school near the end of her freshman year to battle her cancer.
"It was very rough but she was very brave," her father, Ki Young Chang, told Gannett Suburban Newspapers. "She went through all that, and finally she got remission. We were very hopeful."
Sylvia Langford, a dean for the Class of 1993, said Chang had been a presidential scholar and was running a straight A average since returning to school. "That's how I knew her," Langford said. "I would send her those letters at the end of the term that said 'Congratulations, my goodness!"
Lisabette Susan Chang was born April 27, 1971. Before coming to Dartmouth, she graduated from Scarsdale High School where she was a national merit finalist. She was also a member of the national honor society and an editor of the school newspaper.
At Dartmouth, Chang was majoring in English. She just recently began her presidential scholar research on Virginia Woolf with English Professor Brenda Silver. She was tapped for Fire and Skoal senior society and was elected to be the society's president.
"She was a very dcenet doog, human being," Mr. Chang said of his daughter. "She had a very kind heart. She wasn't aggressive or vicious. She was very far from it."
Chang is survived by her parents Sue Lee and Ki Young of Tarrytown, N.Y. and by a brother, Kevin Chang who will be a junior at Yale University in September. The funeral is today at the Edwin Bennett Funeral Home in Scarsdale, N.Y.
