News of his death comes the same week as the release of his memoir, “Great and Unfortunate Things,” a highly anticipated work that Simon & Schuster had decided to release despite the doubts about his credibility. In a statement issued through his publisher, Arday’s family said that they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”
“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone,” the family said
Calling him exonerated is a stretch. Choosing not to defend yourself is a bad look, and he resigned soon after the announcement of an investigation called for by dozens of his colleagues. The allegations came out 3 weeks ago, and he admitted at least making ‘mistakes’ in his PhD thesis. The loss of academic integrity is an existential threat to a university; the investigation should have played out, it might still even without him.