Austin’s Story

Austin died early Monday morning October 30th, in a horrific traffic accident while driving home after having dinner with friends in Seattle.  He was driving eastbound on I-90 crossing over Lake Washington and into Mercer Island, when his car was hit head on by another car going the wrong direction close to 100 MPH.  Austin’s UC Berkeley roommate Bugeon Kim, who was in the car with Austin, was also killed.  Austin was only 22 years old and had a wonderful future ahead of him, only to have it cut short.  He had just moved to Seattle in July, and had bought a house in Bellevue, without any help from Mom & Dad.  

Austin was born on Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2001.  He was such a sweet boy, bringing great happiness and joy to all in his family. He attended Silver Oak elementary school from kindergarten through 6th grade, where he would even in his 20s still come together and meet up with the friends he made here and called “The Motley Crew”.  During these formative years, he played baseball in the Evergreen Little League, became a cub scout, and took piano lessons.  He may not have been the biggest fan of baseball and he would later always joke about his dislike for the sport with all his friends. His piano playing lessons allowed him to become immensely talented with the piano, yet few would get to hear how well he played due to his extreme humbleness. Following graduation from Silver Oak, he attended Chaboya middle school. He always excelled in his studies from an early age.  It was during these years that he switched sports to swimming, joining the QuickSilver Swim Club in San Jose.  He became a topnotch sprinter in freestyle and butterfly strokes. As talented as he was in sprint butterfly and freestyle, as all his teammates in the National Group would come to know, he was the worst kicker. At practice he would always be surrounded by his boys who called themselves the “Slow Boy Gang” despite their talents in swimming. Austin and his friends at practice would run around dry land quoting their favorite show JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures and full of laughs and smiles. His excellent grades in school, and athletic accomplishments enabled him to be accepted to Bellarmine College Preparatory for high school.  He made it onto the Bellarmine Varsity Swim team for both his junior and senior years, where he would not only get to swim with some of his best friends, but also go to class with them.  He graduated in 2019 as a National Merit Scholar and was accepted at both UC Berkeley and University of Southern California (USC); thereby deciding to go on to Berkeley as his college choice. He received his Bachelor degree from UC Berkeley in December 2023, one and a half months after he passed away.  It was at Quicksilver Swimming where Austin met his girlfriend of four years, Sophia Sebastian. They began dating at the end of high school and stayed together all through their college years. Sophia attended UC Davis and her and Austin always made time to see each other despite busy schedules.

It was at UC Berkeley where he met his best friend Bugeon Kim, in a math class they took together their freshman year of college. From there the two were peas in a pod. They took all the same classes together and even wanted to double Major in the same thing, Economics and Data Science. The rigorous curriculum of UC Berkeley did not stop Austin from running his successful business, going to the gym to weight lift, catching up with his friends and also having a 4.0 gpa. All Austin needed at UC Berkely was his best friend Bugeon Kim and to be close to a gym. He was an avid gym goer from high school through college and despite somehow always getting himself injured, he always went to the gym in order to stay healthy and improve his mobility. If you ever saw a guy doing crazy streches and making grunts while looking at his phone in the gym, you might have been looking at Austin. Wearing his barefoot shoes, air pods and carrying his green or orange water bottle, Austin was always at the gym at the same time everyday working on his gym grind. Austin was dedicated, determined and so efficient at everything he executed.

Towards the end of his college years, with the help of his successful business and support of his family and friends, Austin was able to move to Bellevue, Washington. And right behind him, Bugeon Kim moved to Bellevue as well in order to be close by to his best friend. There he bought a beautiful home in Bellevue that was green, his favorite color, and also the perfect home for a first time buyer. He was only 22 years old when he bought this home, and he had done it all by himself. His girlfriend, parents and friends were all so proud of him. There in Bellevue he truly thrived. He worked in the morning, went to the gym in the afternoons, would call his family and girlfriend all the time, and at the end of the day he managed to still communicate with his friends and submit all school work he had for UC Berkeley online. It was only for a handful of months that Austin was able to live in Bellevue, with his best friend Bugeon close by, but his time there was the beginning of his time to shine even brighter. He bought himself a new car and was so excited to get to know Bellevue and establish his early career there and see where it would take him.

Austin’s time in our world was tragically cut short, but we aspire to honor the legacy he created for himself in the short 22 years he was here with all of us. We hope you can see the brilliance, love and happiness Austin brought to this world and we aim to carry that forward through our work here at The Austin Chen Tsai Foundation. Austin’s memory will always live in us and we hope it can live in you as well. Thank you for taking the time to get to know more about Austin, from the bottom of our hearts and his, we thank you for your support of our mission.