Maxfield 'Max' Hollis Hastings

MAXFIELD "MAX" HOLLIS HASTINGS

Mount Vernon

Maxfield "Max" Hollis Hastings, 22, died Sunday, May 2, 2021, in Mount Vernon, Iowa. His cause of death has not been determined.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, in The Kirkwood Room at 515 Kirkwood Ave., Iowa City (next to Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service).

Max was born Sept. 22, 1998, in Chicago, to Julie Elizabeth (Smith) Hastings and Adi Merwan Hastings. Max lived in Iowa City from the age of four, attending The Montessori School of Iowa City, Longfellow Elementary, Southeast Junior High School and City High School. He was a 2017 City graduate and a National Merit Semi-Finalist. Max enjoyed a delightfully raucous childhood, along with his brother, stepbrothers and his many friends.

At the time of his death, Max was a student at Cornell College, studying world religions and planning to major in religion. He was a member of the campus chapters of the Nation Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and participated in several Chaplain and Spiritual Life programs and events. In the months before his death, Max had found a measure of peace in the practice of compassion-based meditation.

Max is remembered for his extraordinary mind, independent spirit and captivating personality. He was a beautiful writer, with a singular voice. In addition to writing, Max had other passions and interests -- drawing, reading and gaming stand out -- that brought him joy over the course of his life. Max played trumpet throughout junior high and high school and was an avid rap music fan.

His decision to major in religion at Cornell reflected an academic interest in theological traditions as well as his personal quest for spiritual direction and caring community. Even when weighed down by doubts about himself, Maxfield nonetheless showed great courage --more than he himself realized.

Max was also hilarious, with an incisive sense of humor that, for the most part, endured. He surely would be pleased if this were the trait, above all others, for which he is most warmly remembered and most sorely missed.

Max is survived by his mother, Julie; father, Adi; younger brother, Henry Brewster Hastings; stepfather, Robert Aaron Chametzky; stepsiblings, Max, Aaron and Samuel Fennell-Chametzky; half-siblings, Calvin and Audrey Wolfe, and their mother, Jen Wolfe; grandmothers, Jeanne (Whittington) Smith and Clare (Taylor) Hastings; grandfather, James Hastings and step-grandmother, Susan Chen; aunt and uncle, Abby and Cory Hastings, cousin, Andy Hastings; uncle, Jal Hastings; great-grandmother, great-aunts and -uncles and other members of his extended family; six cats and Puggle, Roscoe.

He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Thomas Smith.