Wilson Andres Ramirez Chabur

Wilson Andres Ramirez Chabur was born in Bogota, Colombia, on July 10, 1978, the son of Aurelio Ramirez Figueroa and Tulia Chabur Pardo. As a small child, he moved with his parents and sisters (Andrea and Joanna) to Pamplona, Colombia - a small town in the mountains near the border with Venezuela - where he spent the rest of his childhood. He loved to ride his bike and skateboard up and down the steep hills of his neighborhood. At school, he excelled at math and languages, and outside of school he painted, trained as a competitive speed skater, played bass in the youth orchestra, and roamed the streets of Pamplona with his friends Cheo and Juan.
He tested into Colombia's top public university and moved to Bogota at age 17 to begin studying engineering there. At the Nacho in Bogota, fellow engineering students introduced him to rock climbing, which would become - along with cycling - his lifelong passion. With the sudden death of his father, it became increasingly difficult to study, and he left school and spent the next decade working various jobs in Bogota.
In April 2013, he met Maggie for the first time at an evening ciclopaseo in Bogota. They spent the next year traveling around Bogota and other places on bicycle, and in 2014 they married and moved to the United States, settling in Albuquerque, where Wilson learned English and resumed studying engineering, first at CNM and then UNM. In 2017, he and Maggie welcomed the birth of their son, Eric. While a student, Wilson worked at Ajiaco Colombian Bistro, UNM's Center for High Tech Materials, and then at Intel. He fulfilled his dream of graduating with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering in May 2023, the first in his family to graduate from a university. The next week, he and his wife and son traveled to Colombia to visit family in Pamplona, spending the week with his mom and sister and sister's family, walking the colonial streets, eating mangos and empanadas in the plazas, touring nearby historical and ecotourism sites, and enjoying each other's company. The following week he returned to work and prepared to start graduate school, but then went to the doctor because he wasn't feeling well. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia and died the following day. He is survived by his wife Maggie and son Eric, mother Tulia and sister Andrea (Eduardo), and many cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, in-laws and friends who loved and cared for him deeply. Funeral mass will be held Saturday, June 24th at 10am at San Ignacio Catholic Church, 1300 Walter Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87102.