in loving memory of
Daniel Tobias Stutzman
1981 - 2022

Memorial Service
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Watch recording by clicking video image below.
Leave a memory or tribute on Daniel’s Facebook page.
Improvisation in G-minor
This is an improvisational piano piece by Daniel, recorded in May 2012.
Pathway Home
This song in honor of Daniel was written, performed, and recorded by the well-known touring and recording musician Ken Medema. This original composition was commissioned by the Stutzman family on the first anniversary of Daniel's death, and Medema wrote it based on information about Daniel that he received from the family and from the obituary. Note the partial use of a tune from the well-known Largo movement from Dvořák's New World Symphony, often sung to the words, "Goin' home."
Healer
by Andrea Stutzman

You were here, just over there,
sifting through knowledge like shards of glass,
thoughts like tangled silk,
arranging the human mind in layers:
light colors were over there,
dark ones over here.
We marveled at the patterns,
so like mirrors unmasking all our
false faces. Then
we would sing and you would play:
placing the notes just so
to gather currents of wonder and melancholy
from the cold hidden heights of our souls.
These flowed as one downstream
to be submerged in boundless blue,
depositing little fragments of our hearts
at the river’s mouth–
our final goodbyes.
You were here, just over there,
at rest in the relentless course of water,
lighting a path to love:
from impossible aching quest to
manifest mystery.
What the Night Is For
A Blessing for Women’s Christmas
by Jan Richardson

Oh, my heart,
if we could cease working
on our sorrow
like we were trying
to stitch together
shattered glass.

This breaking
is not for fixing,
as though,
if we could just find
the fitting tool,
everything would tumble
into its place,
joined and whole.

Perhaps it is time
to let the shards lie
where they have
fallen.

Perhaps it is time
to let ourselves
sit and weep
over them.




And then perhaps
we scatter them--
into the soil,
into the sky,
it does not matter
where.

Let them take
their place.
Let them shimmer
like a constellation
in all that darkness--

sky-dark, soil-dark,
at home in that strange
and radiant solace
that knows
what the night
is for--

how it takes
the broken things
and sets them
shining
to light our way
from here.

Obituary
Daniel (Dan) Tobias Stutzman, 40, late of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was born August 25, 1981 and died in February, 2022. After he was declared missing on February 18, his body was found along the bank of the Rio Grande on the San Felipe Pueblo on February 22. He died of hypothermia. 

Daniel grew up in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. Early in grade school, Daniel discovered two extraordinary gifts which shaped the rest of his life—the gift of music and the gift of logical thinking as expressed in math and computer science. He excelled equally in both.

Daniel attended Donegal High School and then graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA, with a bachelor’s degree in music performance. He also sang in various choral groups. With his understanding of music theory and a gift of haptic memory, he was able to memorize and play classical music scores on the piano with relative ease. While Daniel delighted many with his energetic piano improvisations, he chose to pursue music as an avocation rather than as a career. He accompanied voice performers and singers, many times in church settings: he was an intern at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. and served stints at Freedom Baptist Church, Otterbein United Methodist Church, and Christ the King Episcopal Church, all in Harrisonburg, VA, and at Boulder Mennonite Church in Boulder, CO, 

Daniel’s career was dedicated to computer programming. His longest stint was with Rosetta Stone, in their Harrisonburg, Virginia office and later in their Boulder, Colorado office. While in Boulder he earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he taught introductory programming classes for DaVinci Institute.  Most of his recent work was  done as an independent contractor or on personal projects, from writing mobile apps to web applications to interfaces for machine learning. He loved to study languages and sought to create a better program for doing so.  His last employment was with VirtualQ, based in Stuttgart, Germany.  

Daniel was an early and voracious reader, often bringing home stacks of science fiction books or technical manuals from the local library. Although he studied both music and computer science in formal settings, he much preferred to learn independently, pursuing knowledge at his leisure. Starting with an Apple IIe, he dove into the emerging worlds of computers and the internet. He had a lifelong passion for studying languages–from the esoteric to common, whether spoken (e.g. Esperanto, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese) or computed (e.g. Ruby, C, C++, Java, Javascript, Python, Perl, PL/SQL, and OCaml).

Daniel was kinesthetically inclined, exploring movement through art forms such as parkour and contact improv rather than competitive team sports. When possible, he walked, ran or rode his bicycle for daily transportation and exercise. He also nurtured deep and authentic relationships with others in structured groups and one-on-one relationships. As a mainstay of the T-group community in Boulder and elsewhere, he was known as a humble and gentle soul, a non-judgmental listener and a funny, engaging conversationalist on many topics.

Daniel struggled with symptoms of anxiety and depression throughout his life. More recently he was stymied by difficult-to-diagnose physical health challenges, including debilitating brain fog. Daniel lived lightly on the earth. Although he was highly independent and mostly lived alone, he was a source of love, kindness, and inspiration for many, especially those who struggled in similar ways as he, as well as those affected by sexual assault and sex crimes. Yet the COVID pandemic increased his isolation and emotional despair, limiting his connections with vital sources of in-person support. After many years of dogged pursuit of solutions to his health challenges, seeking help from both traditional and non-traditional medical practitioners, he ended his life by choice, having lost hope that he could ever heal.

He is survived by his parents–Ervin and Bonita Stutzman of Harrisonburg, VA; a sister Emma Stutzman Dawson (Matthew) and nephews Felix and Caius of Iowa City, IA; and a brother Benjamin Stutzman (Andrea), niece Eva and nephew Evan of Mt. Rainier, MD. 

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm, June 12, 2022 at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, where his ashes will be interred.

Memorial gifts may be made to Street Safe New Mexico [https://www.streetsafenewmexico.org/daniel-stutzman-memorial-fund], an Albuquerque-based organization where Daniel had volunteered.

The family welcomes memories and expressions of sympathy to be shared on Daniel’s Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/dan.stutzman.2].