A California business school student -- set to begin as a Dartmouth professor this summer -- was hit by a car and killed on a Los Angeles street corner Thursday afternoon.
Gustavo de Mello, 38, was crossing the street near the University of Southern California when, witnesses told police, a black sport-utility vehicle struck him. The SUV reportedly sped off after the accident.
De Mello was just steps from his apartment complex when he was hit in the busy intersection and thrown some 30 yards, according to news reports. Paramedics pronounced de Mello dead at the scene, police said.
De Mello, originally from South America, was three weeks away from defending his doctorate in marketing at the University of Southern California and had recently been hired as an assistant marketing professor by the Amos Tuck School of Business.
He was set to start July 1 at Tuck and begin teaching the core marketing course in the winter, according to Senior Associate Dean Robert Hansen.
"He was just one of the nicest people you could come across," said Hansen, who interviewed de Mello for the teaching post. "He was just pleasant, smart, full of energy, full of ideas."
De Mello grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he worked for 10 years before enrolling at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Binghamton before moving to the marketing doctoral program at USC's Marshall School of Business in 2000, where he was expected to graduate in May.
Advisors will use his notes to finish the end of the dissertation and the doctorate will be awarded posthumously, according to girlfriend Renee Owens.
De Mello's research was in the area of consumer behavior, focusing on how people make certain product choices to satisfy their hopes and goals.
Top marketing journals recently accepted a few of his papers, and his dissertation proposal won a Society for Consumer Psychology competition in 2003.
"His research record was more consistent with someone who graduated three or four years ago," Tuck professor Punam Keller said.
Keller, who met de Mello at marketing conferences before helping him during his interview process, remembered how he once made an effort to explain opera to her.
"He was so eager to understand the kind of things you like and to share the kind of things he liked," Keller said.
Keller said he was starting to look for a house in the Hanover area, trying to make sure there was enough space for his parents, who still live in Uruguay, to visit.
"He thought his parents would really like it, and they would move to be with him," Keller said.
Instead, preparations are underway to fly his body home to Uruguay this week. A public memorial service is also being planned at USC.
"We lost a real great potential as a professor but the whole marketing profession has lost somebody who was really going to leave a mark on his field," Hansen said.
A watercolor of Tuck along with some translated letters from faculty members will be among the mementos sent to his parents, according to Keller.
Despite de Mello's outwardly quiet personality, he apparently had no shortage of friends -- a private gathering at USC even drew school janitors, Keller said.
"He would describe himself as shy and even introverted, which is funny if you know him because it's not true," Owens said.
Owens described de Mello as kind, humble, intelligent and, in addition to his scholarly pursuits, athletic -- he taught cycling and "tried every sport there was."
De Mello's friends also remembered his sense of humor.
Owens recalled an occasion when she and de Mello found themselves at a tango lesson. She thought he might have some knowledge of the fancy footwork with the tango being popular in Uruguay.
"He looked at me panic-stricken and said, 'I can't dance,'" Owens recalled. "He said, 'Oh, no! That's why they sent me away from [Uruguay].'"
Many who knew him were shocked at the news of the hit-and-run.
"I personally feel like I lost my son," said USC professor Debbie MacInnis, one of de Mello's advisors.
"All I can think of over and over is that he's too alive -- there's too much life in him -- for him to be gone," Owens said.
The police did not officially release de Mello's name pending notification of family in Uruguay, but friends said the family has been told of the incident.
Police had no suspects in the hit-and-run as of Monday. A spokesman said the investigation is continuing, and any suspect would be charged with vehicular manslaughter.
