Engineer, family man, practical joker

Christopher Alan Stelzer died on February 3, 2015 from complications following surgery. He was 43.

Mr. Stelzer graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993, after receiving a full scholarship to study mechanical engineering. He went on to spend his entire professional life at Technip, where he worked for 22 years. Described by his co-workers as “vital,” “brilliant” and “instrumental to the company,” he used his considerable knowledge and skill to design and engineer plants that converted materials from one state to another.

He travelled extensively as part of his job and consistently impressed his colleagues with his ability to take complex problems and address them in a straightforward manner. He enjoyed the traveling aspect of his work, especially meeting new people and problem-solving.

Mr. Stelzer was recently identified as a future leader for the organization and asked to join a global team of engineers that would be building strategies to address the company’s upcoming challenges.

Mr. Stelzer is survived by his wife, Rachel, and his two daughters, Ashley, 12, and Elisabeth, 10. An extremely dedicated family man, Mr. Stelzer passed on his love of math and electronics to his youngest daughter, and his wicked sense of humor to his oldest.

Loving humor in all its forms, Chris spent his free time combing the Internet for memes to text his wife and devising tortured puns with which to tease his children. He would play tricks on passengers in his car by turning on the seat warmers during a summer’s day and waiting for them to notice, and never failed to wryly point out life’s ironies as they appeared to him.

Mr. Stelzer will be remembered for his intelligence and skill at his difficult and important work but his real legacy is his family, who will miss his wisdom, his caring and, perhaps most of all, his sense of humor and fun.