Daniel Benjamin Waltzer
It is with deep sorrow and regret that we share the passing of our beloved and wonderful Daniel Benjamin Waltzer. Daniel, 32, was born April 8, 1992, and passed away in the early morning of May 18, 2024 from complications from the treatments associated with his battle with Acute onset of Granulomatosis with polyangiitis, GPA (formally known as Wegener’s Granulomatosis). Daniel is survived by his wife Tabbitha, his daughter Vivian (5), and son Jasper (9 months) of Texas, his father Frank Waltzer, his mother Laurie Waltzer, his older brother Evan Waltzer, his beloved grandfather Norman Salt of New Jersey, and his father-in-law Dexter Herbert and his wife Paula Vargas of Texas.
Daniel grew up in South Brunswick, New Jersey and went to High School there as well. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. After school, he proudly joined NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he was working until the time of his passing. Daniel will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and colleagues.
For those so inclined, you can donate to the Family’s GoFundMe at the link below:
Talk about a topic that I never thought I would discuss – the passing of my son Daniel. He kept us hopping from the day he was born. In the first six weeks of his life, we handed him off to surgeons to go into his heart and correct a problem with his Aortic Valve – Aortic Stenosis we were told. To our great relief he obviously survived and went on to live a very full and happy life. Making lots of friends and pursuing many of the things he loved Art, Video Games and music to name a few. He got to go to SVA which was the school of his choice, which also enabled him to experience living in Manhattan for 4 years. Certainly, an eye-opening experience. He then met, and secretly married his wonderful wife Tabbitha, moved to Texas, got a great job at NASA, had two children and was on the way to living the DREAM. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way he developed Wegener’s and it set him and his family on the path that has led us here. So we will be sad and miss him forever. But remember all the good times and the things that made us all love our son Daniel. While shortened significantly he lived a very full, productive, loving and happy life I WILL MISS HIM AND LOVE HIM FOREVER!
For those that missed the Eulogy. I have provided it below:
Dan: My best friend, my best man, my truest confidant, my baby brother. I will miss every second of existence we shared together for the rest of my life. My heart is shattered for not only myself but for your wife, your children, our parents, our friends. This was not how it was supposed to be. As memories from all over our 32 years of time together keep me awake at night cascading into one another, I try to seek some solace in what impact you had upon the world. There is not enough time to tell all the beautiful stories about you that I want. I’ve been retelling many of them all week and would tear down the expanses of the universes to have had a chance to make more stories with you. From the moment you were born, I tried to be a role model big brother. Instilling in you as much integrity and honesty, unconditional loyalty and devotion, dark humor and nerdiness as I possibly could. Seeing and hearing from those who knew you, I know you exemplified those qualities. You exceeded them in every way. You made me proud, you made everyone proud and even to the end you fought like hell and through so so so much pain to try to still be here. You had so much to live for and so much life left ahead of you. Your love for characters from our childhood like Iron Man, Obi Wan, Boba Fett, Johnny Cage and Sub Zero sting a lot more now given their story arcs. I keep thinking of how you always related to Iron Man because of his heart and I just think to myself how Iron Man it is of you to be here after the heroic effort you made getting as far as you did given the heart condition you were born with and how much of your life you sacrificed to be there for others whenever times got tough, especially me. How bittersweet it is to be at this soul paradox knowing that the lesson I took from your heart surgery in 2016 was that life is short and to travel the world and see every concert I could instead of spending more time with you assuming your life would be longer than my own. I always imagined us adventuring around the world with our wives and children showing them the game we used to play at the beach. How bittersweet it is to hold your children so tightly knowing I could not hold you one last time and do our secret handshake. How bittersweet it is knowing how badly you wanted to have us all in one place again, because you missed us so often. I will love you with every atom and every breath and every beat of my heart for the rest of my life and I will honor your memory for as long as I live. As one last piece of brotherly advice to those present I’d like to say: Life is short. Have fun. Be passionate. Be fearless. Hold nothing back. Live in the moment. Nothing is guaranteed and you only have one life. I love you Dan. Thank you for being the best little brother I could have ever asked for. I love you buh bye