Edward Joseph Gutierrez

Jan. 29, 1948 — Aug. 21, 2025

Wearing a tie around his neck, Ed Gutierrez would hold up both ends of the tie and ask which one would unroll faster. After dropping them both, he’d say, ‘It’s a tie!’

These are the kinds of annoyingly convoluted eye-rolling jokes Ed was known for throughout his life by friends and family alike.

Edward Joseph Gutierrez, 77, passed away on Aug. 21, 2025 in Arlington.

He was born Jan. 29, 1948 in El Paso, Texas to Margarita Maese and Jose Ignacio Gutierrez.

Edward — also known throughout his life as Ed, Eddie or EJ — was raised in El Paso. He graduated from Austin High School in El Paso in 1966. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas El Paso in 1977.

Ed married Patricia Elena Saldivar June 1, 1978, and the couple had two sons, Gabriel of Arlington, Texas, and Adrian “Tony” (Tiffany) of Cave Creek, Arizona.

Ray Karriker, affectionately known as “Uncle Ray” to Ed’s children, met Ed as a senior at Austin High School in El Paso in 1965.

“We just cared for each other. When I first came to Dallas, I spent a couple of months, six weeks in your house until I could find an apartment,” Ray said. “That really touched me because I didn’t have a lot of money, didn’t have a lot of friends, I didn’t have any place to go see or anything. So, it’s really nice to be part of the family for a little bit.”

After high school, they both attended the UTEP together, then called Texas Western College. Their friendship was such that they served in each other’s wedding parties.

They found themselves working together professionally. Ray, having become a “computer nerd” would often help Ed who was “computer-phobic.” He remembers Ed as someone who would always be helpful.

“One time, I was coming to work and let my car run out of gas. So, I called him. He says, OK, don’t worry, I’ll come, get you.’ So, he came up the street, and we went and got gas and put it in my car and drove back to work,” Ray recalled. “He didn’t mind, didn’t care, didn’t admonish me for being late or stupid. It’s just that’s just what friends do to help each other out.”

Ed worked as an engineer for more than 40 years, more than 30 of them leading his own engineering consulting firm, most recently known as JEA Hydrotech Engineering, Inc. he served as a member of the City of Arlington Planning and Zoning Commission from 2006-2010 and was recognized as Engineer of the Year by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers DFW Mid-Cities Chapter in 2009.

Ed’s engineer mind made him constantly curious to determine how things worked. Longtime JEA-Hydrotech secretary June Owens remembers a Snoopy candy dispenser that set on her desk to welcome clients.

“He wanted to see how it worked. He took it home, took it apart and could not get it put back together. It never worked right after that,” June recalled. “He tried to buy me a new one and it didn’t work and so it was, it was the funniest thing. He felt so bad, so, so bad about that.”

Almost everyone who knows Ed remembers his stories. He insisted to everyone he met that while he was studying music at the prestigious Juilliard School, he attended Woodstock. The versions varied but the main story is he went for the first day and left because it was “too boring” and only realized how crazy it had gotten after he left when he heard it on the radio.

“He had a way of — how should I put this? — exaggerating stories. He would add stuff to make it his personal story,” June said. “He was just so good at exaggerating things and not blowing out of proportion, just taking somebody’s story and making it his own.”

Managing the office, June found herself as an unofficial office “mom” cleaning up after Ed and his partners’ office hijinks. As much as Ed would like to play the tough guy, he softened around his wife.

“Anytime he was around your mom, he turned into Mr. Mush,” June said. “He totally adored your mother, and it just radiated off him anytime her name came in the conversation. I clearly remember that.”

Sophie Rodriguez, another childhood friend of Ed’s, met him while they attended El Paso Tech High School before his senior year.

Sophie reconnected with Ed through Patricia. Visiting their home looking for Patricia, Ed recognized her despite not having spoken in decades. She said she remembered Ed mostly as a “jock” and that he was nice.

“He’d always say, ‘Sophie, te acuerdas el clase con [do you remember the class with] Mr. Minjares?’ ‘No, Eddie,’” she recalled. “He had such a telegraphic memory, he could remember so much. I would just say, ‘I don’t remember. I don’t care. That was too long ago.’ But he’d always come back every time I saw him ‘Te acuerdas?’ It was funny.”

Ed was also active in his church. At St. Joseph Catholic Church he was a member of Knights of Columbus Council 13470 and the Mary Queen of Peace Fourth Degree Assembly 2112. He was also involved with the parish’s Welcome Retreat program and BRIC Men’s Group.

Sophie knew Ed and Patricia through their previous parish of St. Matthew in East Arlington and now St. Joseph. She credits Ed with continuing the men’s retreats at St. Joseph.

“If it wasn’t for him, men’s retreats, you wouldn’t have had them,” Sophie said. “At one point it was either just before or just after the first retreat that they had, he actually started a group for the men where they were studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That was pretty unique.”

Edward Alarcon, who now serves as the St. Joseph Knights’ grand knight, became acquainted with Ed through the various men’s ministries at St. Joseph.

Alarcon described the other Ed as sometimes being “rough around the edges.”

“He could be an S-O-B, and everybody knew that but everybody loved Ed,” Alarcon recalled. “Your mom balanced it. nobody could get too mad at Ed because of who Patricia is.

Alarcon and his wife Olivia would pray Rosaries together with Ed and Patricia and go on double dates together. To Alarcon, Ed was like a brother. When Ed was staying in a rehabilitation facility, it was Alarcon whom he would reach out to sneak him McDonald’s.

“Your mom and dad were the first people we ever met that we wanted to be friends with, and we just became friends with them,” Alarcon said.

Edward recalled a story Ed shared during the CRHP retreat, that when his youngest son was still a toddler, he was able to hear irregular breathing patterns. It turns out, the tot had swallowed a part of Brazilian nut that got lodged inside of him. He insisted that something was wrong until the boy got the proper medical attention.

“He said that after that moment, he told God, ‘Anything you ask of me, anything the church asks of me, I’m going to do it,’” Alarcon said.

In his spare time, he enjoyed music. He played clarinet and bass clarinet in the Arlington Community Band and Fort Worth Civic Orchestra. He shared his love for music with students as a private lesson teacher for more than 10 years.

Education was very important to Ed. He volunteered on multiple scholarship committees to ensure that students who may not otherwise have an opportunity to attend college could further their education.

Ed was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, George Gutierrez.

He is survived by his wife, sons and brothers Joe Henry (Marilyn) Gutierrez of Sunnyvale, California; and Richard Gutierrez of Santa Cruz, California.

“When he came into the world, there was just three boys. He made a fourth boy, and he made a team. He was an addition to the family that was just fun,” Joe Henry recalled about their childhood. “If you can imagine the kind of mist that four boys can get into, there’s no end to the mischief.”

When Ed’s parents divorced when he was 6, his three older brothers stayed with their father, while he remained with his mother, who was his dad’s second wife. In an era before internet, the brothers lost contact with each other. Ed’s personality was such that he refused to give up finding them, and he located all three of his brothers in adulthood. The two bonded over a love of chess.

“I was just amazed to hear his voice as an adult. The last time I had seen him, he was 6 years old, and he was on a train with your grandmother going back to El Paso,” Joe Henry recalled.

After they reconnected, Joe Henry remembers him and Ed playing with the latter’s children’s toy racing car set. Each time, Ed won, and he didn’t understand why.

“I kept worrying about keeping the car on the track so it wouldn’t roll off. He wouldn’t worry about that, so we just put the car back on, and he’d beat me every time. I learned if you want to race somebody in a car, you got to take a little bit of a risk, and he was willing to do that,” Joe Henry recalled.

Rick recalls that one of the ways Ed tracked them down was that he convinced his classmates at UTEP to “study the aqueduct system” in California. These “field trips” provided him the ability to try to find his brothers in the Golden State. When it didn’t work the first time, he tried again.

“It showed tremendous imagination, creativity and fortitude,” Rick said. “I had to scratched my head and said, ‘Wait, is this Eddie? Little Eddie?’ I was taken aback. I thought, ‘Wow, He found us.’”

Even though it had been nearly 20 years, Rick said he recognized his brother’s voice on the phone immediately. Eventually Ed reconnected with his three brothers and his estranged father. While Ed had to return to Texas, he continued writing letters to his family in California, and they worked to catch up on last time with each other.

“He eventually found his way back to his dad and played the game of chess with him. He completed the circle that he felt was had been broken, and he went about it in a way that I wouldn’t necessarily have known or thought how to do but because it was what he remembered and the things that he wanted, he put them back together,” Rick said. “That made the whole the reunion possible, his caring.”

It was that same attitude that allowed Ed to find his brothers after decades apart.

“He pretty much succeeds at whatever it is he wanted to do. He sort of figured out what it was that it took to get this done or to get that done, and he was able to do it,” Joe Henry said. “He didn’t stop, he didn’t quit. He kept chasing my name wherever he could find it and finally called me.”

He was a devoted grandfather to Elena, Teresa, Rafael, Kateri, Santiago (Jimmy), Gabriel (Gabey), Maria, Michael and Veronica Gutierrez

He will also be remembered by his cousin Clarissa Johnson; and multiple nieces and great-nieces and -nephews; and many loving friends whom he treated as family.

Visitation will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29 at Moore Funeral Home, 1219 N. Davis Dr., Arlington, with Rosary at 7 p.m.

Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 30 at St. Joseph Catholic Parish, 1927 SW Green Oaks Blvd., Arlington.

In lieu of flowers, guests are asked to make a donation to their local Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference.

Written by Ed’s son, Adrian “Tony” Gutiérrez, as told by those who remembered him.