William Rios

Our beloved William left us on August 27, 2020.  He was born in Plano, Texas on August 9, 2005 and arrived in San Marcos during Christmas 2008.  He had a vibrant personality that touched many people.  He was a triplet and identical twin.  Our William struggled with a variety of ailments throughout his short life.  Anxiety and depression grew as he approached his adolescent years and eventually took him from us.  Everyone knew William was a champion for the underdog and he never considered himself the same.  He could be cute and snarky in the same breath and those who knew him would say “that’s William”.  In the days following his passing, so many folks have contacted us to tell us about an event or encounter with our son where he helped in some way.  We are humbled by his kind acts because we knew he was a sensitive and kind soul.  He enjoyed robotics, Cyber-Patriots, Pokémon, strategy board games, video games, and dungeons and dragons in addition to life as a 15-year old at San Marcos High School. He advocated for turtles and adopted “slow and steady wins the race” as his mantra.  He is survived by his family: Parents Moneta and Eduardo, siblings Bradley, Rose, Jared, Andrew, RJ, and Victoria as well as his loving grandparents Jackie Payea, Doug Payea, along with Roberto and Christine Rios.  In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in William’s name to the following organizations he advocated for:

•Learning Ally — https://learningally.org/

•Hays County Food Bank — https://haysfoodbank.org/home.aspx

•Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center — https://www.hcwc.org/

•Central Texas Tortoise Rescue — https://texastortoiserescue.com/

A Memorial Service for William will be live-streamed on Thursday September 3, 2020 beginning at 10:30 a.m. at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82645793316?pwd=SjZueDVnekZsR1g5dnJubkNZelkyZz09 to maintain social distancing during this COVID-19 pandemic. 

The closed-to-the-public memorial service will be held at United Campus Ministry at Texas State (510 North Guadalupe Street, San Marcos, Texas 78666).

An open-to-the-public reception will be held outdoors at the same location beginning at 12 p.m. with refreshments provided. This is outdoors in our Texas heat and masks will still be required along with social distancing of 6 ft. to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during this time.