Ryan Aleksandrowicz is remembered for his dedication and love for his family, devotion to his friends and drive to achieve great things during his lifetime.
An avid outdoorsman, Ryan was often found hiking or spending time in nature. Karen Hutchinson, Ryan’s mother, said he grew up frequenting his friends grandparents’ ranch, which fostered his love for nature and drew him close to his friends.
“His best friends were from high school,” Karen said. “They were very close and got to spend a lot of time together over summer breaks after high school. They would also all spend time at his friend’s grandparents’ ranch outside of Houston where they would camp outside and spend time goofing around on the ATV, making campfires and just being together.”
Dan Aleksandrowicz, Ryan’s father, said Ryan’s friends saw him as a very warm and open person.
“He had a very close core of friends,” Dan said. “They would describe him as extremely smart, very outgoing. He was always looking out for others.”
Karen added that Ryan’s deep love of nature was apparent to their family who took a trip to Alaska, giving Ryan a chance to see the The Last Frontier in person.
“Ryan loved hiking with his friends and family and just being outdoors,” Karen said. “He had a great time hiking in Alaska in 2016 with the family. He would catch snakes, turtles, tarantulas, anything really, and release them. When he was younger, he and his brother would spend hours in the drainage ditch behind our house catching crawfish and tadpoles.”
Dan said Ryan’s adventure in Alaska is one of his favorite memories of his son.
“Probably one of the [funniest memories] was [when] we were in Alaska, Denali National Park, just a couple of summers ago,” Dan said. “He was an avid hiker, he really liked to hike and be outside. We were with his brother and sister as well, but they weren’t as wanting to hike as much. So me and him went out on our own one time. And we’re walking along this trail, and we walk up on this beaver. And I swear to God it was like four feet tall, it was huge, and it was eating this tree down. We sit there for like 30 minutes and just watched it gnaw this tree down.”
Ryan’s decision to attend Texas A&M was in large part due to the engineering department, according to his father. Ryan would go on to study mechanical engineering, a passion seen in his love of working with his hands, evident when he would work on cars with his step-father.
“He and his step-dad, Bryan, would work on cars together,” Karen said “Ryan helped him work on our race car we restored. Ryan drove a Jeep and jumped when offered the chance to drive any of the classic cars we had. One of his favorites was our 1973 E-type Jaguar. He looked great in that car.”
But the engineering department wasn’t the only reason Ryan came to A&M — he wanted to be a part of the Aggie family.
“He wanted to be in the A&M engineering department, he thought that was the best that he could find,” Dan said. “When he visited the campus, he fell in love … the big, beautiful campus, so much tradition. To be part of something that has so much history, so much tradition behind it, he wanted to be a part of that.”