Former Wagner College Student Government Association president Harry S. Jackson III ’09 of Brigantine, New Jersey, died on Friday, July 29, in a terrible car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. He was 33.
His fiancée, Jennifer A. Solly, who was riding with him, survived. They planned to marry next May, according to a family friend.
“Harry was just a joy to be around,” recalled Wagner College President Angelo Araimo. “He was determined, hard-working and strongly committed to everything he worked on — but he always did things with a big smile and a sense of humor. He just lit up every room he was in. He was one of those rare students from whom you learned as much as you taught.”
“Harry was an incredible student leader and an amazing role model for all on campus,” said his friend Michael Pinto ’10, who served with Jackson on the SGA 2008-09 executive board and succeeded Harry as president the following year. “He garnered the respect of both students and administration, always putting a smile on everyone’s face. It was evident that no matter how hard you tried, you would never be able to fill his shoes.”
Following his graduation from Wagner College in 2009, Jackson graduated from Rutgers Law School in 2012, joining the Gaming Practice Group of the Atlantic City law firm of Fox Rothschild LLP.
Jackson had a promising career ahead of him. He was named to the “Emerging Leaders of Gaming 40 Under 40” list for 2019-20 by Global Gaming Business Magazine. Last year, Fox Rothschild named Jackson a partner and co-chair of the firm’s American Indian Law Practice.
A member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, Jackson was elected in 2014 to its nine-member tribal council, serving as secretary and lending his legal expertise to the group that oversees tribal governance. Jackson himself was responsible for coding tribal laws and advising the tribal supreme court’s principal justice.
Jackson was also a comic-book enthusiast and a deeply loved part of the “family” at Level Up Entertainment, a comic store in nearby Mays Landing.
“Our family got a little smaller this past weekend, and the world got a little less nice,” Level Up posted in a blog. “We had a running joke calling him ‘The Nicest Guy in the World,’ and he always lived up to that moniker.”
Services for Harry S. Jackson III are scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 7 at Fairton Christian Academy, 199 Fairton Milville Rd., Fairton, N.J. Viewing is from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. The funeral service starts at 4:30 p.m.
