Willis Benjamin Becker, son and a brother; cousin, nephew and uncle; friend to so many; and father to one, passed away in Denver, Colorado on October 13, 2015. He died on a beautiful fall day full of golden light and shimmering leaves.

On December 15, 1985 Willis was born in Pinos Altos, New Mexico, in a pink house bordered by an apple orchard, a creek, and the occasional stray cow. Jane Seavers, midwife and lifelong family friend, helped bring him into this world. Black baby hair puffed off his head, impossible to tame, so his two older brothers quickly took to giving him mohawks.

He spent his childhood between Pinos Altos and Silver City. He rode bikes with his brothers, caught horny toads, ate candy from The Museum, played in the creek, and wanted desperately to be old enough to ride Bus 3 with the other kids. His big heart that so many of us will remember him for was evident from the beginning. At the age of three he woke up from his nap. Our cat, Sarah, had died while he was sleeping and he demanded that we exhume her. We did. He held her to his chest and he cried and cried.

The rest of his childhood can be remembered for its many bright moments. There was the time he filled his pockets with cicadas and ran through Scott Park, buzzing. The time a seagull stole his sandwich at Popham beach in Maine until he thwacked it with a stick. The times watching his older brothers learn to shave under the tutelage of stepfather Gilbert Mora, that Willis said why stop at just your cheeks. He lathered up his entire face and ears and half of his neck. He did everything, basically, just like he did that. If there was something on the menu that was served on fire, he ordered it.

He attended Silver High School and graduated High School in Missouri. It didn't take long for Willis to find his true calling: being a friend. Willis's gift was to be with people.

After graduation, he moved to Denver, Colorado where he attended school and worked and continued to practice this gift. If we paid people to be friendly and decent and caring, he would have been a millionaire. He worked to live, and live he did. He loved going to Washington Park. To Red Rocks. To the mountains. He filled every space he was in and practiced friendship fully to the end. He accepted people as they came. He was candid. He was real. He had a thousand best friends. His life was never boring.

It was in Denver that his son Orrin was born. Willis and Orrin were not just father and son, but best friends. They went to the park, the Denver Museum of Natural History, the Bagel Deli. Those were good years. Later, in New Mexico, on the last day he would spend with his son, they walked out into the hills and the trees to release a toad they had caught the night before (the Fourth of July). They let the toad go because they both wanted it to return to its family.

He was preceded in death by his stepfather, Gilbert Mora.

He is survived by many-father, Joseph Becker, mother, Barbara Mora, stepmother, Kathy Stevens, brothers Jeffrey and Daniel and their families: Claudia Carle, Hunter Storm Smith, Alsatia Smith and Ali Kimbrough. Aunts and uncles. Nephews and nieces. A legion of friends. So many he loved. So many who loved him.

In particular, he leaves behind a son, Orrin Alexander Pinski-Becker, who was the love of his life. He would want you, Orrin, when you are older and can read this, to know this everyday for the rest of your life. He loved you. He wanted you by him always.

And so we let him go to whatever happens next. We feel his absence but we still see his smile. We hear his laugh. He was never shy to share them in life; he isn't shy to share them now. He filled so many spaces in his life with his presence. He fills them now with his memory.

A Memorial Service will be celebrated Saturday, October 24 at 1pm at Terrazas Funeral Chapels with Assistant Pastor Nils Eng officiating.

In lieu of flowers family is requesting donations be made to Silver City Gospel Mission, 111 S. Texas, Silver City, NM 388-3071 and St. Francis Associates for the Needy, 914 W. 13th St., Silver City, NM 538-3662.

Arrangements are with Terrazas Funeral Chapels "Trusted care for the ones you love" ~ 575-537-0777. To send condolences, visit www.terrazasfuneralchapel.com.