Joseph Raymond Hartl-Lazaro

He grew up in San Antonio, Texas, with his sister Anna Virginia Chavez, in a small family with his father Joe, his mother Eloise, his uncle Gilbert and his aunt Mary Louise Lazaro.

Despite experiencing the devastation of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, losing his first husband Robert and friends to this disease, he was full of positivity and optimism and lived his life finding true happiness.

Joseph Raymond moved to Dallas from San Antonio in 1998 to start a new life. He preferred being called by the short form of his middle name, Ray, in his new life in Dallas.

He met his second husband, Dominik Hartl, who moved from Austria to Dallas in the same year as Ray, in February 1999. It was love at first sight, which lead to almost 25 years of sharing two lives together until Ray’s death in 2023.

Dominik and Ray entered a civil union in Vermont in 2001 and married in New York City in 2013, changing their last name to Hartl-Lazaro.

Ray and Dominik traveled the world and started working on building their dream house in Dallas together, a project which turned into a multi-year effort that Ray didn’t live to see finished.

He changed his career from Floral Designer to Radiology Technologist. Ray worked hard getting into the competitive Radiology Technologist program at Dallas El Centro College, which he completed with great success in 2015.

Ray loved his new career and the incredible colleagues and friends at Baylor Scott & White Heart and Vascular Hospital in Dallas.

August 2022 delivered a devastating diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer when diffuse back pain turned out to be a fatal disease.

Ray chose aggressive Chemotherapy, which gave him 10 months of good quality of life but eventually the cancer spread too much and took Ray’s life.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, October 15th, 2pm at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 W Northwest Hwy, Dallas, TX 75225.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the American Cancer Society, https://donate.cancer.org.