Dustin Aaron Strom

Dustin Aaron Strom (April 23, 1987 – June 13, 2023)
Dustin Aaron Strom (age 36) of Trumansburg, NY, was killed on the night of June 13, 2023
when he was struck by a driver traveling at high speed while riding a bike in New Orleans,
Louisiana. At the time he was killed, Dustin was returning to his beloved van after a wonderful
day of good music and food in a city that he truly loved. Dustin is survived by his parents, Barry
and Ellen Strom of Trumansburg, and his sister Jessica Strom, currently of Stafford Springs, CT.
Dustin is also survived by family and friends in the New York City area, Israel, Trumansburg and
the Ithaca area, Florida, and those he made along the way in his travels. Among his friends in
Trumansburg is a close group with whom he played soccer, starting when they were very young
and continuing through high school. This same group also gathers every year at the Grassroots
Festival which they started attending when they were young. Dustin loved Grassroots and always
returned no matter where he was.
Dustin was a 2005 graduate of Charles O. Dickerson (Trumansburg) High School and a 2009
graduate of the University of Vermont. Dustin’s parents instilled in their children a love of travel
and exploring new places, cultures, and foods, which took the family far and wide, from camping
in Maine and Canada, to trips and study abroad in Europe, to tours in East Asia. At the time of
his death, Dustin was on a (second) dream trip around the United States in his 1987 Ford
Econoline camping van. He began this trip in October 2022, traveled through the Blue Ridge
Mountains and the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, and arrived in New Orleans in
February 2023, about ten days before Mardi Gras. Dustin loved good food, good people, and
good music which he found in abundance in New Orleans. In his final days, he was working to
check things off his “New Orleans must-do list”—still not complete after four months—before
heading back north to Trumansburg. Following his death, an Instagram post by a New Orleans
musician whose club Dustin visited several times a week drew numerous comments praising
Dustin as a good, caring, and memorable guy, despite the fact that he had only been in the city
for a short time.
Dustin was a caring person who cared. He had a profound respect for all people and offered
those around him absolute compassion. At the Franziska Racker Center, Dustin made a real
connection with the individuals he looked after at the group home where he worked. He also
cared for his grandfather with astounding tenderness during his final months in late 2020. In his
every action, Dustin made sure that anyone he encountered was able to live their life with the
utmost dignity and acceptance.
Dustin lived his live on his own terms. He connected with people of all types, and loved deeply
and without reservation. He strove to fully experience the places he visited, frequently and
deliberately taking the path less traveled. But it was in taking these paths—and sharing his
experiences with the people he loved—that Dustin found the most profound joy. Dustin had the
enviable ability to remember exactly where and what he ate five years earlier, where he heard the
best music, where you could easily park, and how to get from point A to point B. He readily
shared his copious notes and stories with those he loved so that they too could experience a small
piece of what he had. It is through these memories that Dustin will live on, and in retelling his
stories that we will honor his memory.

Donations in Dustin’s memory can be made to the Friendship Center (St. Johns Community
Services in Ithaca), Loaves and Fishes (Ithaca), the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, or a charity
of your choice.