Anne-Sophie Neumeister, Fordham Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ’21, died on Sunday, Sept. 6, in Waltham, Massachusetts. She was 23 years old. 

“Anne-Sophie was not only young—so very young—but also a kind and luminous presence in the lives of all who knew her at Fordham,” University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., said in an email to the Fordham community on Sept. 13.

Neumeister was born Sept. 4, 1998, in Austria to Alex and Veronique Neumeister. At the age of two, she moved to Bethesda, Maryland, with her family. Three years later, at the age of five, her family moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where she spent the rest of her childhood. 

She remained closely connected to Austria throughout the rest of her life. According to Fordham News, Neumeister loved Austrian chocolate and desserts, and she would even request a special Austrian cake each birthday. She also loved visiting her family in Austria. 

While living in Connecticut, Neumeister met Rachel Menze during her freshman year of high school, who said that Neumeister was “a beautiful and intelligent woman.” Menze also commented on how great of a friend Neumeister was.

“She was always there to support me when I needed it, whether it was 12 in the afternoon or 12 at night,” Menze said.

Menze also spoke about Neumeister’s love for New York City.  

“She always loved taking trips to NYC where we would walk the streets and imagine we were in the middle of our favorite show, Gossip Girl,” Menze said.

“She was fiercely intelligent, incredibly caring about the world and really operated at an incredibly high level as a communicator.” Beth Knobel, graduate director of the master’s in public media

After graduating from high school, Neumeister attended the University of Connecticut, where she received her bachelor’s degree in communications in May 2020. In fall 2020, Neumeister began her master’s degree studies at Fordham in the public media program.

“She was fiercely intelligent, incredibly caring about the world and really operated at an incredibly high level as a communicator,” Beth Knobel, graduate director of the master’s in public media and Neumeister’s adviser, said. 

Knobel said she got to know Neumeister quite well through being her adviser and because Neumeister was highly involved, attending many school-sponsored events. She also said that through advising and reading her master’s project, she saw how intelligent Neumeister was.

“It (Neumeister’s master’s project) was so good that you would have thought that someone had done it who had already been communicating in the nonprofit world for a dozen years,” Knobel said. “She was really the ideal student for what we do in the public media master’s program.”

While in the master’s program, Neumeister worked as a public relations specialist for Neuritek Therapeutics. After graduating, she began work as a social and digital media associate for LifeSci Communications, a communications and marketing agency focused on life science and medical technology. 

“She tackled everything head-on,” her mother told Fordham News. “When she decided to proceed with something, she did it with all her energy and all her enthusiasm and everything she had to give.”

“She just lit up everything and everyone she came in contact with.” Beth Knobel

Knobel explained that Neumeister fit in extremely well at Fordham, as she really enjoyed the small class size and getting to know her professors.

“She just lit up everything and everyone she came in contact with,” Knobel said. “It’s just precious to everyone in our program that Anne-Sophie was at Fordham and was a part of our community.” 

A funeral for Neumeister was held on Sept. 17 in Waltham, Massachusetts. Neumeister is survived by her parents, Alex and Veronique Neumeister, and her brothers, Nicolas and Timothy.