Andrew Wyatt Harrison

Andrew graduated from Houghton High School in 2003. His most notable achievement was his outstanding performance in the Hobbit, where he starred as the main character, Bilbo Baggins. It received rave reviews. He was also active in Odyssey of the Mind, and his Houghton team went to state competitions for several years. He was an accomplished student & was a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist in 2002.

Andrew finished a 23 day Outward Bound course in Colorado at 16 and loved the challenge. He also loved mountain biking and finished the 18km. mountain bike challenge in Copper Harbor, 2002, in good form. It is one of the toughest mountain biking races in the country.

He first attended college at the University of Minnesota, Duluth for two years. He became interested in neuroscience and in his sophmore year, he received an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Grant to study the antidepressant effects of a neurotransmitter analogue. His study produced significant results and his data were presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual international convention that year. He was a rising star. Andrew transferred to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2005 but never finished his college degree. His serious mental illness, which had been under control with psyche meds, slowly spun out of control when he tapered the meds and started taking adderall to help study longer hours for exams. It was the beginning of the end. Before he had to drop out of school, he became president of his residential co-op in Ann Arbor & helped start a computer repair business.

Andrew moved to Los Angeles permanently in 2011, looking for better opportunities in the computer field but he started on a downward spiral that led to his recent death. He was living a hell on earth with his disease firmly in control. Our thanks go out to the many good folks in the L.A. area who tried so hard to help him.

We remember Andrew for his loyalty, charisma, intelligence, sense of humor and love of dogs, (and computers!)

He is survived by parents Geoff and Cindy Harrison and brother Brett, all from Houghton. Also, an aunt and uncle and three cousins in Minnesota, and numerous friends.

An informal wake will be held for him at a later date. He is being cremated in Los Angeles and the ashes will be sent back to Houghton. Memorials could be made to the Copper Country Humane Society in Houghton or N.A.M.I., (the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization). Closest: Nami-Alger Marquette, P.O. Box 262, Marquette, Mi. 49855.