Carlos González Parra

A Funeral Mass for Carlos González Parra will be held at 10:00 am, December 27, 2023, at St. Augustine Church in Elkridge, Maryland with a Rosary beginning at 9:30am.

Carlos passed away peacefully on December 18, 2023 surrounded by family in Ellicott City, Maryland. He was born October 10, 1941 in Havana, Cuba. He fled Cuba because of communism, coming to the United States on July 14, 1960 and he referred to that as his second birthday.  He met the love of his life, Amalia Durán in Miami, Florida in September of 1960, falling in love and within 5 months they were engaged. After a long courtship, they married December 23, 1965 and had three daughters. Carlos obtained his bachelor and master degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder. He had a successful career; teaching geology at New Mexico State University, and later working as an engineer and manager at NASA. He worked at both Goddard Space Flight Center at the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia and later at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, as part of the Space Station Project. During his retirement in 2008, Carlos wrote a book in Spanish of his childhood memories in Havana, Cuba.

As a child, he visited the United States often and was interested in American culture, even attending “American English” classes at the US Embassy. His family and friends called him “Charles”, pronounced in a Cuban manner as “Char-less.” During his youth, he wanted to be an astronaut, an engineer, and a pilot. In Cuba, he was very involved in sports, playing baseball, football, and swimming; he enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and boating.

Carlos was a devoted son, husband, father, and grandfather who woke up early to do puzzles and cook breakfast. He loved to share stories and jokes. He was a kind and generous man who was well loved by all who knew him. He enjoyed attending Mass, working on household “projects” (at both his own and at the homes of his three daughters), traveling, gardening, fishing, tennis, golf, watching his Houston Astros baseball team, indulging his lifelong fascination with airplanes, walking his dog Waffle, and mostly just spending time with family.

Carlos is survived by his wife, Amalia Durán Parra; three daughters, Amalia Parra Morusiewicz (Paul), Cristina Parra Walker (David), and Maria Amalia Keefe (Colin); and six grandchildren, Nicholas Thompson Morusiewicz (Stephanie Nicheporuck), Zachary Mark Walker, Gregory Charles Walker, Catherine Twila-Marie Walker, Christopher Carlos Keefe, and Grace Elizabeth Keefe. Carlos is predeceased by his parents, Carlos Manuel González Parra and Marta Eloísa Hernández.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to:

Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston, cristoreyjesuit.org 

or

Little Sisters of the Poor in Baltimore Maryland,  littlesistersofthepoorbaltimore.org.