Kelly Gordon
22 years old

When Kelly Gordon was pursuing a triple major at Boston College Business School, she counseled her roommates to adopt a ‘no nap’ policy. Naps were a waste of time, Kelly said, when there was always something better they could be doing.

She took her own advice, working part-time jobs and starting small businesses to pay her way through college. She also helped organize charity events for cancer research and, time permitting, baked elaborate cakes for her friends and family.

Her mother Lorraine said Kelly, the oldest of five children, was a natural leader. “Her love of life was contagious,” Lorraine said, “to the point where her ambition and compassion inspired everyone around her.”

On the day Kelly died, she had just interviewed for a position at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan. She was set to graduate from college four weeks later.

This collision happened on April 10, 2014 near York Avenue and East 84th Street in Manhattan. See details in the Mean Streets Tracker.

Mean Streets 2014: Who We Lost, How They Lived

Throughout 2014, WNYC tracked the 265 men, women and children killed in traffic crashes in New York City. In addition to reporting the circumstances of their deaths, we looked at who they were in life: mothers, fathers, grandparents, students, recent immigrants and native New Yorkers. To read some of their stories, click on a photograph.