Enriqueta Styers

Enriqueta Mariela Styers is the daughter of Ed and Epse Suatengco and was born in Manila, Philippines on July 29, 1961. She is the seventh of eight children and their first daughter. She grew up for the most part in Ubay, Pulupandan on the island of Negros Occidental where the family farmed sugar cane.

She graduated from Saint Scholastica High School in Bacolod City about an hour away from the farm. She attended De La Salle University a few blocks from the family home in Manila. Mariela graduated with a telecommunication engineering degree in 1983.

After college Mariela traveled to the United States to work as an engineer. In July 1984 she found a civil service position at the Naval Air Engineering Center in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Mariela worked with test equipment software and met her husband, Jeff. They married on December 27, 1986, and bought a condominium in Jackson, New Jersey. In October 1989, Mariela found a position at the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

In Utah the family bought a house in Layton, Utah and had a son James in 1991 and a daughter Megan in 1993. While in Utah the family traveled to the Philippines for a month in 1995 to celebrate Mariela’s parents 50th wedding anniversary and visited with relatives. At the end of 1998 the family had an opportunity to move to Colorado to work on satellite terminal software. After accepting positions, they worked for 6 months in Massachusetts for training and while there James and Megan stayed in New Jersey with relatives.

In July 1999, the family moved to Colorado Springs and Mariela worked at Peterson Air Force Base. Mariela attended on-line classes at Air Force Institute of Technology and received a space systems engineering degree in 2010. In 2014 her daughter had a grandson, Ezekiel. She supported depot projects and later acquisition programs for numerous satellite communication systems and transitioned to the Space Force with its inception. In August 2024 Mariela retired after 40 years of civil service work.

Mariela died November 15, 2025, and is survived by 6 of her siblings, her husband, two children and her grandson.

Her Funeral Mass starts with a rosary at 1:30 PM on December 18, 2025, at Saint Gabriel’s Catholic Church, 8755 Scarborough Drive, Colorado Springs, CO, 80920.

Burial will be at 10:30 AM on December 19, 2025, at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 12801 W 44th Ave, Wheatridge, CO, 80033.