Jeopardy! producers have said his absence will be acknowledged during the tournament. Smith’s mother broke the news of his passing on twitter earlier this year. He died Friday, Feb. 5 in Nevada. Local media reported that he suffered complications from surgery and was hospitalized for several days at a southern Nevada hospital but no cause of death of was revealed. A graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Smith was even called “Alex’s Last Great Champion” and was looking toward competing in the Tournament of Champions. He received an economics degree in 2020 and had planned to go to law school and work for the federal government as a lawyer. Most recently, he interned at the prestigious Cato Institute and focused on criminal justice reform. Always devoted to learning, in high school he was a National Merit Scholarship Finalist and was captain of his school’s Quiz Bowl team. “He was a voracious reader and autodidact, a lover of knowledge and an advocate for justice. His room was bursting with books on political science, philosophy, economics, and history,” says his obituary in the Las Vegas Review Journal. “Brayden loved classic and not-so-classic movies. He could be explaining the symbolism in Citizen Kane one moment and the comedic timing in Dumb and Dumber the next.” Smith’s dream was to be on Jeopardy! As he mentioned in a video tribute to Trebek he loved having the chance to spend time with the longtime Jeopardy! host, who he adored. “Doing the questions and answers is almost incidental, I think, to spending time with somebody who I had cherished in my life for such a long period of time,” he said. “In these last few months I think back on it all the time and really savor each moment that I got to have with him, even outside answering the questions.” As his mother, Debbie Smith, Tweeted, “We are heartbroken to share that our dear Brayden Smith recently passed away unexpectedly. We are so grateful that Brayden was able to live out his dream on @Jeopardy!” Donations in Brayden’s memory may be made to The Brayden Smith Memorial Fund which is devoted to helping students in Southern Nevada live their educational dreams.
