Gabe Mares

Gabriel was born in 1972 in Tucuman, Argentina to Michael and Lynn Brusin Mares. He was a gifted student and enjoyed a fun childhood with his “little” brother, Daniel, born in 1974. The family lived in Tucuman and Salta, Argentina; Pittsburgh and at Pymatuning Lake in Pennsylvania; Tucson, Arizona; and Norman, Oklahoma. He was a gymnast in high school. After graduating from Norman High School with honors in 1990, he studied at the University of Oklahoma as a National Merit Scholar and earned dual degrees in engineering and management information systems in 1996, and missed a degree in math by a single course.

Gabe lived in Dallas, Texas, where he worked as a software engineer on F/A-18 Hornet and F/A-18 Korea for Graphic Simulations Corporation. He then moved to Washington state, where he worked for Blue World and – for the last 15 years – for Microsoft, Windows Media, Sports and Turn 10 Studios, helping to produce NFL Fever and several versions of Forza Motorsport for the Xbox and Xbox 360. Game development was work, but it always sounded like a really fun job since Gabe was so enthusiastic about it. He was a meticulous engineer with a passion for music, photography and cars; technically-minded, with a warm smile and a relaxed demeanor, one of the smartest people around with a passion for making great games, and an infectious enthusiasm for everything he did, be it his work or his hobbies. When he died, two boxes of awards were found packed away that had been presented to him by Microsoft and other companies for the work he did. He never mentioned them to his family and was happy to have done the job well. He loved gaming and he loved working on artificial intelligence that is the critical part of games. As he explained, “If I don’t do my part, the players will just stand there.” He read math and physics books for enjoyment, as well as fantasy and sci-fi.

Gabriel was an artist with the camera. He captured stunning images of scenery in Washington and New Mexico and kept an ongoing diary of Anna’s hummingbirds that fed just outside his living-room window.

Gabriel died on November 6, 2016. His sudden death came as a total shock to his family. He called almost every day and there were many wonderful conversations about movies, politics, science, world affairs, football, cosmology and other topics.

Life is so fragile. He was here and then he was gone. As a British writer noted: “How do you go on knowing that you will never again—not ever, ever—see the person you have loved? How do you survive a single hour, a single minute, a single second of that knowledge? How do you hold yourself together?”

All of us, perhaps especially Gabriel, were surprised by his death. Now there are no tomorrows, only yesterdays. He will be forever young and vital in our memories, always the young super-competent gamer and software engineer.

“La tristesse durera toujours." [The sadness will last forever.]

― Vincent Van Gogh