Griffin Madden, victim of Oakland warehouse fire, recalled as gifted and ‘luminous’ by UC Berkeley professors

Griffin Madden was one of 36 people who died in an Oakland warehouse fire on Dec. 2, 2016. Photo: Courtesy Cal Performances Griffin Madden was one of 36 people who died in an Oakland warehouse fire on Dec. 2, 2016. Photo: Courtesy Cal Performances Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close Griffin Madden, victim of Oakland warehouse fire, recalled as gifted and ‘luminous’ by UC Berkeley professors 1 / 54 Back to Gallery

It is the rare undergraduate who captures the attention of his instructors, particularly on a big and competitive campus like UC Berkeley.

But Griffin Madden, 23, who graduated in 2015 with a double major in philosophy and Slavic Languages and Literatures, wowed faculty.

“He was probably the most memorable undergraduate student I’ve had in my years of teaching,” said Luba Golburt, an associate professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, recalling the young man who was among 36 people to die in Friday night’s horrific warehouse fire in Oakland.

Golburt had Madden in two classes: 19th century Russian literature and a seminar on the Ukranian writer Nikolai Gogol.

“He had a luminous away about him, a quest for knowledge, and an enthusiasm for learning things,” Golburt said, adding that her colleagues shared the sentiment. “We all remember him very fondly.”

Irina Kogel, who teaches Russian language, had Madden in classes twice at UC Berkeley.

“He was the kind of student you would want to have,” said Kogel, who is now at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. “He was incredibly inquisitive and worked harder than he needed to. He always had a question about something.”

Madden’s passion extended to music of all kinds. He ushered for five years at Cal Performances, where jazz, choral music, classical and world music cross the stage, and had recently won a full-time position as Audience Services Associate.

“Our community is heartbroken at this news,” Matías Tarnopolsky, Cal Performances’ executive and artistic director, said in a message to colleagues. He called Madden a “beloved member of our staff” and said a memorial event would be planned for the spring.

It was Madden’s love of music that led him to the Golden Donna 100% Silk show at the Ghost Ship warehouse Friday night.

When Madden, of Berkeley, couldn’t be found in the aftermath of the fire, friends created Facebook posts featuring his smiling face and tousled hair, and sharing their fears and their hopes. “We could all use a little miracle right now,” wrote Kenra Verga.

His girlfriend Saya Tomioka remembered seeing “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway in New York with Madden last year.

“I remember tears swelling my eyes because the city was so beautiful and amidst of all the lights, I got to look at the brightest light of all, my sweetie,” she wrote. “I cried, and we kissed. Some random photographer captured this very moment, this very kiss. ... I never got his name, and he just simply showed us the single beautiful snapshot that he was able to capture.”

Now, Tomioka wrote, “our community mourns,” and she hoped the photographer might somehow find a way to send her the “treasured memory that I’ll always keep in my heart.”

As he prepared to graduate from UC Berkeley last year, Madden won a grant to spend the summer studying Russian at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Kathryn DeWaele, a doctoral student in Russian literature at UC Berkeley, won the same grant, and said she was delighted to discover Madden in her program across the country. She had been a teaching assistant in a class he had taken on the author Vladimir Nabokov.

Madden “wrote really, really well and was a very productive member of the class,” DeWaele said. “He was a really sweet guy.

“This is heartbreaking.”

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@NanetteAsimov