Andrew James Watt

Andrew was born in Auckland, New Zealand on April 20, 1974 to Denise Brenda Watt (Lapsley) and Peter James Watt. After a difficult labor which started off in Pukekohe, Denise delivered her first child as a healthy baby in National Woman’s Hospital.

From a young age, Andrew enjoyed gardening. He liked to follow his Dad around while he mowed the lawns. He also had an aptitude for tinkering with anything mechanical, always eager to figure out how things worked in the world around him. As he grew up, Andrew became very interested in computers—deconstructing and reassembling them, often with a few parts to spare. He and his younger brother Philip enjoyed a close relationship and shared a love of bicycles as two active children. Both brothers liked to excel at everything they did, often competing with a good-natured spirit.

In his teen years, Andrew’s love of computers, the outdoors, and bicycles merged—and he made several choices to sell prized computer modems to fund his growing passion for motorbike riding. The ability to analyze financial trade-offs would serve him well when he went on to study finance and accounting at Victoria University in Wellington New Zealand. Out of school, he worked for Arthur Andersen, now Accenture. In his early twenties, Andrew had his first child, Anastasia in New Zealand. Then work took Andrew to Australia, where he met his first wife, Justine. They later moved to Canada, and married where their daughter Sarah was born. A few years later, they moved to Murrieta California, where his son James was born.

From Murrieta, Andrew worked for Cognos, Ineum, and most recently, Hewlett Packard. This is where Andrew met his second wife Larissa in 2008. They married in July 2012.

Friends and family knew Andrew as a determined, smart, easy-going, joking person who was also a loving husband, son, brother, father and friend. Throughout his life, Andrew enjoyed traveling, skiing, golfing, tennis, boating, competitive swimming, running marathons, tackling home improvement projects, and driving fast cars. Above all, Andrew knew how to appreciate life and leaves a legacy of wonderful memories in the hearts and minds of his loved ones. His bravery and optimism in battling cancer has been a source of inspiration to those around him.

Andrew is survived by his wife, Larissa, his father, Peter, his step-mother, Rosina, his mother, Denise, Denise’s partner Phil, his brother, Philip, his sister-in-law, Camie , his in-laws, David and Sonia Jones, his children: Anastasia, Sarah, and James, and step-daughter, Kelly, as well as extended family in New Zealand. He is joining his grandparents, David and Valerie Watt and John and Brenda Lapsley, in heaven.

The family will hold a celebration of life and burial service on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar, California.