A Brown University student and Dallas native died Friday evening after falling from a rooftop in Beijing, China, where he was studying abroad.

20-year-old Arun Stewart was at a rooftop gathering with friends when he lost his footing and fell from the rooftop terrace, Brown University President Ruth Simmons said in a prepared statement on the university’s Web site. Authorities in Beijing are investigating the incident as an accident.

Stewart, a junior at Brown and a graduate of Greenhill School in Addison, was studying at the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University. He was pursuing East Asian studies at Brown, Simmons said.

Stewart's passion for languages traced back to high school, and he was heavily involved in Greenhill's Chinese language program, headmaster Scott Griggs said. Stewart had traveled to China at least once with Greenhill's Chinese program.

Griggs described Stewart as an exceptional student, but he remembered him most for his personality.

“He was just a delightful kid that everyone enjoyed, very bright,” Griggs said. “He was his own person, definitely very individualistic, extraordinarily talented.”

An informal gathering was held Sunday evening at the Brown campus to remember Stewart. A formal memorial service will be held after Thanksgiving, university officials said.