Remembered for his love of nature, Josh Bauerle could light up a room with his infectious smile.
Born in Austin to Scott and Gina Bauerle on June 1, 2000, Josh was an affectionate soul who strived to make his family proud and have a positive impact on everyone he encountered.
“He was passionate about caring for people,” Scott said. “A lot of people at a young age don’t understand how caring for other people works, but I think he was pretty mature in that way, where he understood that it made him feel better if he showed that he cared more for other people.”
As a young child, Josh was full of energy and loved spending time with his twin sister, Lexi, and older brother, Jake. Serving as resident prankster, both at home and later in life with his peers, Josh always had something up his sleeve to get his friends and family laughing.
“He was always a super nice, caring guy, but at the same time, [he] was competitive,” longtime friend Matthew Kehm said. “If you dish it to him, he could dish it right back at you. He was a prankster and jokester and all that; [he] would play like little pranks on me and my friends. But when someone needed help with something, he would help out. He was always nice to everyone in the group, and would always be a good sport about everything, just trying to make everyone laugh, make everyone smile and make sure everyone’s having a good time.”
Spending time with family was very important to Josh. He often opted for a night in with parents or grandparents to grow his relationships and bond with those who were close to him.
“He, like my other kids, was very family oriented, which my whole family has been. So he would hang out with his parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters,” Scott said. “He would call his grandma up and say, ‘Hey, do y’all want to have dinner Saturday night or something?’ He was just very kind hearted, just like his brother and sister.”
In addition to family, Josh enjoyed spending time with his long-time friend group, or “squad,” as they called themselves, all who attended school in Dripping Woods.
“He has gone to school with the same kids since pre-K, and they became a really close knit group of friends. They’ve been hanging out, some of them from three or four years old, so it’s pretty unusual in this day and time,” Gina said.
Josh spent a lot of his time outdoors or traveling. He loved to take trips with his family and friends to visit places around the world, including the Colorado Mountains, New York and even Machu Picchu with his father. Josh was on a mission to visit the Seven Wonders of the World.
“He has traveled quite a bit with his family and friends, including Peru, the Redwoods in California and Colorado,” Gina said. “He was at peace when he was in nature.”
His most recent trip was in January 2021 when he traveled with friends to see the redwoods in Sequoia National Park.
“There’s a small group of us that went to California, and we were kind of driving through the mountains on some really windy turns and just having a good time being in the wilderness,” Kehm said. “[We were] just laughing and smiling and enjoying the outdoors.”
A creative mind, Josh was always thinking about new ideas or inventions he could create. His parents said from a young age they saw him potentially going on Shark Tank to sell his own product.
“He was always pitching ideas to me that he thought would be cool,” Scott said. “Some of them were really goofy and funny, but some of them were probably Shark Tank worthy.”
Later in life, Josh grew a passion for cooking Wagyu steaks — a recipe which he was perfecting.
“He was in a GroupMe with a bunch of men who talked about how to cook meat,” Gina said. “He made a really amazing steak, but he didn’t like it on the grill. He liked to make it in a cast iron skillet.”
After high school, Josh first attended Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for two years where he worked hard to apply to come to the College Station campus.
“Josh really wanted to go there — he wanted to get into A&M. He actually made some little inspirational videos and stuff about how bad he wanted to get in there,” Scott said. “He was inspired; he wasn’t one that was just gonna kick back and fall into the typical position of just settling in to be average, he always wanted to be above average. I think that kind of went with that whole spirit from the university, he felt like having a degree from there was above average.”
During his time in Corpus Christi, he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity where he was involved in every service opportunity he could fit into his schedule.
“He wasn’t afraid to go out of his way to make sure somebody else was happy over himself, he put others first,” longtime friend and construction science senior Key Dube said. “When he was at Corpus, he was always volunteering for charity events, fundraisers, all those types of events. He was always going to be at those.”
In the fall of 2020, Josh received his acceptance letter from Texas A&M at College Station to begin in the spring semester with a degree in agricultural economics. He was passionate about becoming a part of the Aggie family and wanted to take in every opportunity he had to become engrossed in Aggie traditions.
“Whenever he came to A&M, he saw how the students are always kind of watching out for each other, same as the staff and faculty,” Dube said. “I think that was a big thing that really stuck out to him was just helping the community. He was always being a brother to whoever needed him. He was always sticking his neck out for you.”
Gina said though he only attended the A&M College Station campus for one semester, Josh was honored to be an Aggie from the start.
“He was so proud to be a Texas A&M student, he was so proud of that,” Gina said. “He worked really hard for it.”