Kelsey Hogarth grew up at Syracuse University.

When her parents were students at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry from 1995 to 1997, she often went to Hendricks Chapel, where she attended quilting sessions with her mother. She also played with the chess club and participated in the CROP Hunger Walk, said Brett Mosier, Hogarth’s father.

“SU was in her blood, even from being 7 or 8 years old,” he said.

Hogarth, 24, a first-year masters student, died at her family’s home in Syracuse on Saturday. She was studying advertising in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications after receiving a bachelor’s degree last year in communication and rhetorical studies from the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

When she left Syracuse in high school to attend a boarding school in Massachusetts, she was a member of the rowing team and the volleyball team. It was at boarding school that Hogarth developed her dedication to education, Mosier said, earning high grades to keep her scholarship. This attitude carried over to SU, where she made the dean’s list several times.

When Hogarth returned to SU, where she spent time as a child, it was as if she had never left.

“She enjoyed People’s Place. That was one of her favorite places to hang out,” Mosier said. “It was comfortable for her, because she grew up in that space. She enjoyed the people there, and the community.”

Diane Grimes, an associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies, taught Hogarth in four different classes beginning in 2009, she said. In all of those classes, Grimes said, Hogarth showed intelligence and dedication to her class work.

“She was dealing with an illness so there were times she would miss class, but she always sent her work in,” Grimes said. “Sometimes she’d come in and be tired, but she’d really contribute to the class.”

Grimes added that Hogarth demonstrated a strong affinity for visual analysis in her classes.

At SU, Hogarth was a seamstress for costumes used in plays, Mosier said. She later used her crafting skills and creativity to start her own business selling handmade dolls, a collection titled K.Chanei. Her work was sold online through her Etsy shop and featured in Bloom, a store in Ithaca.

“They’re really creative, they’re all one of a kind,” said Draya Koschmann, the owner of Bloom. “We’ve sold just as many to grown-ups as we have to children. Everybody loves them.”

She said the K.Chanei dolls were her favorite dolls in the store.

Koschmann met Hogarth through the store’s Gallery Night and said she was “easy to work with and very cheerful.”

Koschmann planned to contact Hogarth this week to ask for more dolls to stock for the Christmas season. The store already sold two in the last week.

Mosier, Hogarth’s father, said her creativity stemmed from being an only child.

“She was always creative. You could give her cardboard and tape and she’d make a little stable for her horse. Then she’d find yarn to make hay with,” he said. “She’d have to figure out stuff to do on her own, because she didn’t have a brother or sister to play with.”

He said starting the business was one of the most creative things Hogarth ever did.

Hogarth loved to travel – spending her 16^th birthday in the rain forests of Ecuador and her 18^th birthday in Paris, her father said. While she didn’t have any plans to travel this year, Mosier said she was really looking forward to being finished with her advertising classes at SU.

Since the age of 18, Hogarth had been battling Crohn’s disease, which affected her digestive system. She lost a lot of weight as a result of the disease, Mosier said, and was restricted to a gluten-free diet.

“As a parent, you’re worried because you’re not used to seeing your child that sick,” he said.

He said there is no evidence that Crohn’s disease led to her death, and that Hogarth was in the best condition she had been in for the last five years.

Along with the handmade dolls, Hogarth was also working on a book, Mosier said. He said that she was a strong writer and had written a short story to describe her experiences with Crohn’s disease.

The story described how she would often use her creativity to deal with the disease.

“It chased away the illness and even though the girl was still a little weak, and she was still a little tired, she could feel the magic in her soul,” Hogarth wrote.

Published on November 25, 2013 at 6:58 pm

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng