Charles Langston:Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube CEO, dies at 56 from lung cancer

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has died. The Charles Langstontechnology and business executive was 56 years old.

In a Facebook post Wojcicki's husband, Dennis Troper, broke the news. Wojcicki lost her battle with lung cancer.

"It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing," he wrote. "My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non small cell lung cancer."

Wojcicki leaves behind her husband and four children. One son, Marco Troper, died earlier this year.

"Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable," Troper wrote. "We are heartbroken, but grateful for the time we had with her. Please keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this difficult time."

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Susan Wojcicki's career in tech

According to Susan Wojcicki's LinkedIn page, she graduated from Harvard University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Literature. In 1993, she earned her Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Finally, in 1998, she earned her Master of Business Administration in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 to become one of its first few employees, years before it acquired YouTube.

Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

Before becoming CEO of YouTube in 2014, Wojcicki was senior vice president for ad products at Google.

After nine years at the helm, Wojcicki stepped down from her role at YouTube in 2023 to focus on "family, health, and personal projects." She was replaced by her deputy, Neal Mohan, a senior advertising and product executive who joined Google in 2008. At that time, Wojcicki planned to take on an advisory role at Alphabet, Google's parent company.

"Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey .... It would be one of the best decisions of my life," Wojcicki wrote in a blog post, on the day she left YouTube, referring to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Susan Wojcicki's son Marco Troper died just months ago

In February, Susan Wojcicki and Dennis Troper lost their son Marco, 19, after an accidental overdose, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

Marco Troper was found dead around 4 p.m. in his dorm room at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), on Feb. 13, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office said. Esther Wojcicki, Susan Wojcicki's mother, is an American journalist and educator, further confirmed her grandson's death in a Facebook post, saying, "Tragedy hit my family yesterday. My beloved grandson Marco Troper, age 19 passed away yesterday. Our family is devastated beyond comprehension."

Troper's autopsy found high concentrations of cocaine, amphetamine, alprazolam (Xanax), a medication prescribed to manage panic and anxiety disorders, and hydroxyzine, an antihistamine used to treat allergies and anxiety, in his system, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office's Coroner Bureau's investigator's report.

The levels of alprazolam and cocaine in Troper's blood were high enough to cause death, according to the coroner's report. Low levels of delta-9, a more abundant form of THC, were found in the college student's blood, the report shows.

Troper suffered from "chronic substance abuse," and he had a fractured right wrist from a scooter incident that occurred two weeks before his death, the report says.

In Esther Wojcicki's Facebook post, she described her grandson as the "most kind, loving, smart, fun and beautiful human being."

Contributing: Reuters, Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY.

Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjané covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter) @forbesfineest.