The 20-year-old son of “Orange Is the New Black” creator Jenji Kohan died in a skiing accident in Park City, Utah, on New Year’s Eve, according to local authorities.
Charlie Noxon, a junior at Columbia University, was on an intermediate trail near Canyons Village at the Park City Mountain Resort at the time of the crash. He hit a sign while attempting to negotiate a turn at a fork in the trail, according to Lt. Andrew Wright of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. There were no witnesses, and his family was further down the mountain at the time of the incident. He was on the trip with his siblings and father Christopher Noxon.
Following “further emergency care and evaluation,” Noxon was pronounced dead by Airmed, according to a statement from the resort. The cause of death is not yet clear.
“Park City Mountain, Park City Mountain Ski Patrol and the entire Vail Resorts family extend our deepest sympathy and support to our guest’s family and friends,” said Park City Mountain vice president and chief operating officer Mike Goar.
The family released the following statement through the sheriff’s office:
“Our hearts are shattered. Our dear boy Charlie Noxon died on New Year’s Eve on a ski slope in Park City.
The cliches about moments like this are true, it turns out. The one about life forever changing in a split second, about the fact that we are all bound up in a web of love and loss, about the primacy of community in times of unfathomable tragedy.
Charlie was 20 years old and a junior at Columbia. He studied philosophy and economics and Chinese. He loved Bob Dylan, George Saunders and Hayou Miyazaki. He was questioning, irreverent, curious and kind.
There are no words. But words are what we’ve got right now, along with tears and hugs and massive quantities of baked goods and deli platters.
He was absolutely adored by his parents, Jenji Kohan and Christopher Noxon, and his siblings, Eliza and Oscar.
Charlie had a beautiful life of study and argument and travel and food and razzing and adventure and sweetness and most of all love. We cannot conceive of life without him.
Services will be held this Sunday Jan 5 with his rabbi Rabbi Sharon Brous in the community he called home, Temple Israel of Hollywood.
– Christopher Noxon & Jenji Kohan”