Joshua Chavez

Joshua Manuel Chávez, March 26, 1989 - November 18, 2023

Joshua M. Chávez, 34, passed away at the home of his parents at the hour of divine mercy on November 18, 2023.

Funeral services are at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Santa Fe, preceded by a rosary at 10 a.m. Visitation is from 9:00 to 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 1 at Rivera Family Funeral Home. Burial will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Maxwell Cemetery in Maxwell, NM. Online condolences can be made at www.riverafamilyfuneralhome.com.

Joshua was born on Easter Sunday in 1989. He and his mother, Tania Chávez, lived in Española, Socorro, Albuquerque, Cincinnati, and Santa Fe, where Abe Franklin joined the family as his stepfather when Joshua was 10. Joshua completed his Montessori primary and secondary education here. Joshua began attending New Mexico Tech (NMT) in 2007, as an Environmental Engineering major, but due to illness had to return to his parents’ home in Santa Fe after three semesters. Over the following several years, he attended Santa Fe Community College, Northern New Mexico College, and the University of New Mexico, where he took one or two classes per semester, always working with an eye towards completing an environmental engineering degree at NMT.

During this time, he instructed snowboarding at Ski Santa Fe, he moved into Santa Fe’s Hopewell neighborhood, became an active member of the Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church community, and began volunteering for the Chainbreaker Collective. He formally served as a tutor and teacher’s assistant at Northern New Mexico College, and informally at every school he attended.

In 2019 he returned to NMT in Socorro, and completed his degree with high honors in Environmental Engineering in May, 2022. In October, 2022 he moved to Española and began work as an environmental engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), concurrently earning a graduate certificate in carbon capture from Colorado School of Mines in May 2023. He completed his first year at LANL while battling the cancer that took his life.

Joshua enjoyed travel, snowboarding, wine tasting, bicycle transportation, film, and, yes, math. He valued time with his friends and extended family, whether around the dining room table or out camping in New Mexico’s splendor. He was generous, thrifty, considerate of others’ feelings, and known for sharing his honest opinions. Joshua is survived by his mother Tania J. Chávez, brother Skye Franklin, stepfather Abe Franklin, grandparents Randy and Julia Chávez and Rita (Catlin) Harris, aunts Wendy Chávez and Heather (Franklin) Helton, uncle Tobias “Toby” Chávez, and many great uncles, great aunts, and cousins. He was preceded in death by his beloved bonus paternal grandfathers, William “Bill” Franklin and David Harris.

Donations in Joshua’s name can be made online to the Chainbreaker Collective at https://www.chainbreaker.org. A scholarship fund will be established in his name with donation information to be announced at a later date.