May 2, 2007 – August 24, 2025

Isabella Elaine Ungerman

An Aggie of intelligence and kindness 

At 18 years old, Isabella “Bella” Elaine Ungerman tragically passed away, along with her father, in a car accident. On the way to finishing her move-in to college — a time of new beginnings — things suddenly came to an abrupt end. 

During Bella’s life, she managed to touch and influence the hearts and minds of all around her through compassion, intelligence and pure kindness. Born in San Antonio, Bella grew up with her father, Richard Craig “Rick” Ungerman, her mother, Tanya Ha, and her older brother, Henry Ungerman.

“All her friends love her, and her teachers love her,” Tanya said. “At her funeral service, you know, so many people came, her teacher all the way from kindergarten. Elementary school to middle school and high school. … Yeah, she’s only 18, but she has a lot of people who love her and come to her funeral service.”

This abundance of support stems from the extreme love and care that Bella treated everyone with. 

Between helping friends with their schoolwork and making sure that everyone around her was content, she never failed to place the well-being of others before her own. 

It is these qualities that prompted her to excel — with the hopes of eventually pursuing medical school in order to become a doctor.

“She was really good in science,” Tanya said. “I mean, she was good in pretty much everything, like English, history, science, chemistry, biology, math. I mean, she’s really good in everything. …  She had straight A’s in every subject all the way since elementary until high school.”

Bella didn’t ever let her academic prowess prohibit her from taking care of others. Tanya recalls a specific time in high school when Bella studied for hours with her friend to prepare for a science test. 

When the day of the test arrived, her friend didn’t do as well as she had hoped. Instead of simply taking pride in her high score, all of Bella’s focus shifted to her friend and what she could do to help the situation.

“I‘m just telling you this story to tell how much she cares about her friends,” Tanya said. “She wanted everybody to do well and not, you know, get left behind, things like that. … She just had so many good qualities in her personality. Not only is she smart, but she’s kind, loving and caring.”

Throughout junior high and high school, Bella participated in a plethora of activities, always staying busy and succeeding in everything she put her mind to.

“She liked dance,” Tanya said. “She was in the dance team in high school. She was in the swimming team when she was in elementary school and middle school. In middle school, she did theater. She was in band in middle school, theater and marching band. She played flute. And then in high school, she was in the dance team the whole time. She loved dancing.”

Throughout her participation in all of these activities, Bella put her all into everything she pursued while making sure to never lose sight of her kindness and conscience.

“Some parents, when your kid [is] getting older, maybe high school, something you are warned they get in trouble, you know, at either academy or work or things like that,” Tanya said. “But she didn’t do anything like that to make me worry.”

Despite her sense of responsibility and maturity, Bella always focused on her joy and the way in which she could spread it to others. 

When asked to do the challenging task of describing her daughter in three words, Tanya settled on “Smart, loving and kind.”

“I call her my sunshine,” Tanya said. “That’s my nickname for her, you know, she’s my sunshine. Since she was little, always a cheerful and happy little girl.”