(TIMES UNION) — Schenectady, N.Y. — Draven Rodriguez, a quick-witted senior at Schenectady High School who made national news last fall when a proposed yearbook portrait of him with his cat against a background of laser beams went viral online, died Thursday at home. He was 17. The cause was suicide, his parents said.
Although his humor and intelligence were readily apparent, Rodriguez was more cherished by family and schoolmates for his easy facility for friendship.
“He made friends wherever he went,” said Rodriguez’s father, Jonathan Stewart. “He had friends all over the country — people he’d met at youth-leadership conferences, online, just around town.”
