Remembered by friends and teammates for his intellectual curiosity, quiet generosity and attentiveness to others, Ryan Lafferty ’26 left a lasting mark on the international debate community and the people closest to him.
Lafferty, who died on April 13 at age 23, served as president of the Dartmouth Parliamentary Debate Team and became one of the most successful debaters in the program’s history.
In January 2025, Lafferty and teammate Madeleine Wu ’26 won the World Universities Debating Championship in Panama City, Panama, becoming the first Dartmouth pair to win the tournament, and the first U.S.-based team to do so in seven years.
Students from the team remembered Lafferty for the intellectual humor and curiosity he brought to conversations, as well as for making others feel welcomed and included.
Issa Allison ’29 wrote in a statement to The Dartmouth that Lafferty put deep care and attention into “countless hours” of refining his cases and answering “any of the myriad of questions” he had as a first-year debater.
“Ryan Lafferty was the first person to believe in my debate potential, intelligence and simply me, beyond a surface level, at Dartmouth College,” Allison wrote.
Sophie Johnson ’29 recalled traveling with Lafferty to a tournament in Boston during her first term at Dartmouth. When she began feeling sick during the second round, Lafferty “immediately sprinted to the nearest CVS” to buy her cough drops in time for the next round. He made her freshman fall feel “warm and welcoming,” she recalled.
Joshua White ’26, another member of the debate team, said Lafferty’s generosity came through in small moments with his teammates while traveling for competitions.
“Ryan was always extremely thoughtful and supportive of others, always putting us before himself,” White said. “When we stayed in hotels for tournaments, some of us would go out and see the city. Ryan would often stay in to get proper rest before competing the next day. We’d come back and find Ryan sleeping on the floor, saying he had saved the beds for us to get good sleep, as if he wasn’t the president and the one most likely to be competing in the championship the next night.”
Lafferty also served on the coaching staff for Team Mexico at the World Schools Debating Championship — a global competition for high school debaters — beginning in 2023. In a joint statement to The Dartmouth, the team remembered the sincerity that shone through Lafferty’s intellect.
“Ryan had a rare way of making brilliance feel warm,” the team wrote. “He was one of the smartest and most well-read people we have ever met, but he never held that over others. Instead, he shared it openly, explaining, teaching and inviting people in.”
They wrote that they will remember Lafferty “with wonder, with gratitude and with a smile.”
After Lafferty’s death, debaters around the world shared tributes across memorial pages and online forums created in his honor. Many came from people who did not personally know Lafferty but learned from his freely-shared casebooks, matter files — curated research documents on global issues — and recordings of his own debate rounds, all of which remain publicly available. He also posted lectures on his YouTube channel, garnering thousands of views.
“He was a world champion who treated everyone with equal respect and dignity,” Karel Brandenbarg of Canada wrote on Reddit. “A mentor to many, who freely gave information to all, when he easily could have monetized it by making it exclusive.”
Lafferty’s free materials democratized access to debate knowledge, helping those without formal coaching to learn the fundamentals and improve. Kelly Hartono Tan of Indonesia wrote on Reddit that his videos helped her “become the debater I am today.”
“You can always hear the passion in his voice when he talks,” Hartono wrote. “…You can simply feel that he genuinely loves what he does.”
Lafferty’s wide-reaching mentorship as a top debater reflected his kindness at heart. Tejas Subramaniam, a senior at Stanford University and Lafferty’s close friend and longtime debate partner, remembered Lafferty’s intention in his friendships. Whether Lafferty was giving his last Red Bull to Subramaniam at the Panama World Championships, giving Subramaniam his meal swipes “if the tournament vegan option wasn’t quite good enough” or making a donation to the Humane League in Subramaniam’s honor for his birthday, Lafferty showed care in practical ways, Subramaniam wrote on Reddit.
“Whenever I told him that I loved him, he always told me he loved me too,” Subramaniam wrote. “I will always love him as a friend.”
Lesley Machimbidza ’28, a teammate and close friend of Lafferty, wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that Lafferty would “randomly ask if [he] wanted a donut and walk all the way to [the Hopkins Center for the Arts] to deliver it” and that “he checked in after every midterm, without fail.”
“It was his humility that made him truly special,” Machimbidza said.
On the government department foreign study program in London during fall 2025, he formed friendships with a new community of classmates across the Atlantic. Government professor Jeremy Ferwerda, who directed the program, remembered Lafferty’s “wonderful sense of humor, producing an astronomical number of well-intentioned and witty memes” that brought his peers closer together.
Yasmine Marrero ’27, who met Lafferty in a government seminar on security policy, wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that their friendship grew out of long conversations that moved easily between serious discourse and humor.
“He was the most intelligent person I’d ever met, yet still so humble, inclusive and kind,” Marrero wrote. “I was always excited to come to class to talk with Ryan, to hear his ‘I’m not sure I agree with this, but…,’ to hear his laughter between serious discussions, to see him smile.”
Marrero added that knowing Lafferty had a lasting impact on her.
“To have known him and to have learned from him is to have been blessed,” she wrote.
Friends said some of Lafferty’s most meaningful acts of kindness showed up in unexpected gestures.
Aryanna Ram ’27, one of Lafferty’s best friends, said among Lafferty’s most distinctive qualities was the “deeply human and deeply personal” relationships that he built with those around him.
“It’s not that he saw the good in people,” she said. “He saw all of people and understood, in that whole picture, what is there about them that makes them good.”
After the death of their friend Kate Ginger ’27, Ram said Lafferty arrived at the memorial chapel before anyone else. He cleaned up, organized chairs and prepared candles so Ram could “get ready and feel prepared for the service.” Afterward, Ram said Lafferty sat with her and peeled her an orange while they “recapped” the day together.
Ram said Lafferty’s dedication was characteristic.
“You sometimes don’t even notice all of the small kindnesses he’s offering you,” she said.
In their obituary, Lafferty’s family encouraged those who knew him to share a meal with family and friends in his honor.
“One of Ryan’s greatest joys was having a decadent meal with friends and family, especially the Cruller French Toast at Lou’s in Hanover,” Lafferty’s family wrote. “In his memory, please share a meal with family or friends and say yes if they offer whipped cream on top.”
Yasmine Marrero is a news writer for The Dartmouth. She was not involved with writing or editing this article.
Max Hubbard '29 is a reporter from Boston, Mass., and is majoring in government and minoring in French. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, running and watching movies.
Isabel Menna ‘29 is a reporter from Leavenworth, Wash., is majoring in economics and is a member of the Dartmouth Ski Patrol.
