Mathias Burris Geittmann passed away on a beautiful, bluebird Colorado day, on Flagstaff Mountain above the Boulder Valley on June 3rd, 2024 at the tender age of 19. This beautiful, talented soul leaves behind his family, including mother Stephanie Lynne Burris, father Edwin John Hans Geittmann, his darling sister, Brynne Burris Geittmann, two grandmas, Judith Burris and Mary Kae Geittmann, and an uncle, Jason Burris as well as his beloved, Malti-poo companion, Gizmo.
Tiy joined his parents on September 29th, 2004, in Longmont, Colorado at the Longmont United Hospital and lived in Longmont and Dillon, Colorado until heading to Fort Collins to attend CSU to study business.
Not satisfied with the usual 40 weeks of gestation, he decided to arrive fashionably late by a few weeks, at almost 9 lbs. when he was born, hence earning the nickname Bubba the Hulk, and the baby pterodactyl as he was known for his vociferous, ravenous toddler appetite before growing into other nicknames, such as Tiy, Mat, Matiy, Kiddo and various gaming aliases, such as Tiy52G, and Jeff the Baller. This also established his lifelong propensity for procrastination. He was a foodie, and loved avocados and apples, coffee, and grilled dinners. He worked as a barista, where he was always fixing broken equipment, and as an Instacart driver who was always breaking and fixing car parts on his Volvos before becoming a practical Honda Civic man.
Mathias had many hobbies, like most babies, he was an avid thumb sucker, until he had to give up that habit, when he was forced to wear Band-Aids on his raw thumb, to which he exclaimed about said Band-Aids, “It burns me it burns me!” Who was he fooling?
While he was two, he went undetected as he scaled six shelves in the kitchen, to somehow open a cookie jar up on the top shelf without knocking anything down or breaking it, in order to extract lifesavers and Altoids. As his parents drove him to Denver to see friends, Mathias began crying in the backseat, “Spicy! Spiiiiiiiiicy!” They had no idea he knew that word, nor what he was talking about until they made an emergency stop and found a half-eaten package of curiously strong Altoids tucked in his mouth like a chipmunk. Mat had hidden the package away in his cheeks wrapping and all and it was a four alarm fire! He was determined to have what he wanted and in this case as in many others, he went overboard with gusto.
His second hobby, was construction and destruction! This involved hammering on a wooden shipping crate, and he eventually graduated from hammering on it with a plastic mallet to using a Stanley hammer, 100’s of nails, a screwdriver and saws. He gave it up at 5 when the only thing that remained of his crate was a pile of shreds, and his mother was grateful, because parts of the house they lived in were also under construction! She had to repair his work to brickwork, plaster work and windows. He moved on to paper plane making, Legos, scootering, snow tubing, and biking. The family spent many hours at Sandstone Ranch and Breckenridge in the skate park bowls, with scooters, bicycles and finally skateboards.
He was an avid skier and snowboarder being a true Colorado man, and he enjoyed hiking with his family and his friends in the mountains. Never one to be cautious with his things, he enjoyed a long phase of off-roading and furniture ramming with RC cars, forcing his father to be the daily repairman, and his mother became general search and rescue.
In middle school he graduated to making his own battery buggy, which won the speed contest the year he entered, and he was on the first tech Up-A-Creek robotics team as a mechanical designer while at Silver Creek High School. Despite the pandemic, their team of 12, won several state competitions, eventually gaining the world championship title against thousands of teams from around the world. Mathias loved to play games, including chess, checkers, Uno, Tanki and Call of Duty….With his competitive and determined streak, he became formidable.
Mathias became a fine musician, learning by ear, first on the piano, next as a ukulele player and guitar picker. He studied classical Spanish guitar but could shred on the electric as well. His favorite band of all time was Smashing Pumpkins, although he loved rap, hip hop, folk, classic rock, EDM, and Spanish guitar. He enjoyed going out to live music with his mother, who made sure he had Red Rocks experiences early on. His first concert at Red Rocks was John Mayer, followed by the Lumineers, and while he walked around many people high-fived him, calling him little dude and commending him for being an enthusiastic participant and ability to sing along to all the words. This established his love of live music, and he went to several live music festivals with friends in recent years. Mathias traveled with his family to many destinations in the United States, as well as to the UK, Italy and Fiji. In each new location, there was a new adventure to be found, including kayaking, hiking, snorkeling, birding, culture and beach time. He spent a week in Wisconsin annually with family.
Mathias had a very bright smile, and enjoyed a long, enduring friendship with several childhood friends, and expanded his circle to include many friends at CSU. He worked out several days a week, and was very interested in nutrition and weight training.
He is missed by his family, who are grateful to have known him, and sorry to lose him too soon. Mathias miraculously survived an extremely violent car accident on the diagonal highway at the age of seven and survived two years of recovery but subsequently suffered from mood dysregulation. As his parents, we could glimpse the person he would become – had he had more time to mature, and we could not wait to see his evolution beyond the teenage years. We wish him peace, love and understanding, and we shall hold him in our hearts always. ❤️
Services were held at Willow Farm in Hygiene, Colorado, on June 8th, 2024 with around 75 people in attendance to celebrate his uniquely adventurous life. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests donations be made to The Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, in order to honor his love of Colorado wildlife and wild places. This fabulous organization rescues all manner of wild creatures from the plains, and foothills to the Rocky Mountain high who are the ecosystem engineers of our beautiful state. Please support them with a small donation in Mat’s name. http://www.greenwoodwildlife.org/ Finally, Stephanie and Hans would like to thank all who honored him and have lent support during our tragic, painful loss.
