IU junior loved company of others

Jonathan Herz, an IU junior, was described as a social butterfly of the Chicago North Shore and was known to make friends with basically everyone he met.

“The main thing that made Jon special was that he always wanted to be with you,” said Zach Richardson, a friend of Herz’s since kindergarten. “He’d wake up after spending the night with us and send out a mass text to get breakfast. I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell him no to breakfast. If people were willing, he was ready.”

Known as Jon, the 20-year-old student died Dec. 17 from a self-inflicted injury at his residence in Smallwood Plaza, said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Jeff Canada.
BPD officers were called to the scene because Herz was reported to be severely injured.

A BPD detective did an investigation by interviewing Herz’s friends and decided that Herz was alone when he died based on a surveillance video provided by the residence, Canada said.

Though drugs were found in the residence, BPD is still waiting on the results of a toxicology report to determine if there were drugs in Herz’s body.

No suicide note was found, and many of his friends described Herz as a happy person. He and longtime friend Nicole Rovner talked the day before and made plans to hang out during break and spend time with his new baby sister.

The day that he died, he texted his dad and told him he couldn’t wait to see his family and he loved him.

Herz had plans to attend a ski trip with friends, including Rovner, during winter break. He had a zest for life, said Rovner.

He was also a member a of Phi Kappa Psi, and he planned to go to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during spring break for a leadership retreat that his fraternity members chose him for.

Herz planned to major in economics and wanted to stay in Bloomington this summer so he could work on a minor in business. He previously opened an Ameritrade account and was interested in stocks, his father, Thomas, said. He was also interested in real estate and spent last summer interning at an insurance agency with his uncle.

Although Herz didn’t live in his fraternity house, he came to visit almost every day because it gave him the chance to be around others, said IU junior Chris Held, Phi Kappa Psi president.

“He was one of the nicest people I ever met in my life,” Held said. “He was always into pleasing others before pleasing himself. I think that’s the general consensus in our house.”

The fraternity was very important to Herz, and he had told his father he wished he’d picked an apartment that was closer to the house.

He recalled dropping Herz off at the fraternity house at the beginning of Herz’s sophomore year and being disturbed by the filth that he saw in the house, worried his son wouldn’t be happy there. He told Herz they could find an apartment for him instead.

However, the two went on to Target, and when they came back to the house, it was cleaner.

“Maybe he told the guys to clean it up for me,” his father said.

Herz continued to tell his father how excited he was to live in the house and that it would be OK.

“He’d just turned 19, and he knew me so well,” his father said.

Herz also had a warm spot in his heart for his baby sister, Hannah, who was born in June.

When Herz went to meet his new sister in the hospital, he was afraid to hold her at first – maybe he was worried he would hurt her, his father said. However, once his father placed Hannah in his arms, Herz wouldn’t let go.

“During the summer,” Herz’s father said, “he would go to work, he would walk through the door, grab Hannah and not let go of her for four hours. He was a very, very warm person.”

Herz grew up in Skokie, Ill., but moved to Wilmette, Ill., when he was in the eighth grade. Although he went to New Trier High School, he had friends in many of the surrounding high schools including Notre Dame, Loyola and Niles West.

“He didn’t go to my high school,” said Roxy Elster, a friend of Herz’s since their freshman year of high school, “but sometimes I forgot that because everyone at my high school knew him. ... He always put a smile on my face. Everyone I introduced him to just loved him.”

Herz had a diverse friendship with many people, including Richardson, who started out as Herz’s enemy in grade school.

Herz grew up in high school, Richardson said, and his friends gave him a hard time, but he knew they loved him.

“Jon was a goofball in high school. He was always the friend we could get to do the dare,” Richardson said.

During the fall of Herz’s junior year, he decided he wasn’t happy with the way he looked, and he completely changed his diet and started working out regularly, a habit he continued into college.

Going to college really brought out the true Herz, Richardson said. Because Herz rarely was able to see his friends from home, he would be really excited when he finally saw them.

“He drove me crazy,” Richardson said. “He’d ask me about what I’d done, and before I was done, he’d ask me about the next thing.”

Herz loved being around people. His favorite place to eat was Sarkis. His father said he isn’t sure how much Herz actually liked the food, he just loved an excuse to be with his friends.

Although Herz came off as a goofball, he also loved having deep conversations with others, said Will Haben, a friend of Herz’s for five years. He’d be at a party and he’d
begin to have deep intellectual conversations with the people around him, said Heather Martin, a friend of Herz’s since kindergarten.

“It seems like with our group of friends,” Richardson said, “he’s come up every time we hang out. But it’s not depressing; he still makes us laugh. He is with us all the time in his jokes and in his laugh.”