Frank Ramos Yrigoyen

Born in Baldwin Park, California, on July 24,1927 to Maria Luz Ramos and Aurelio Yrigoyen.

Frank was a Jack of all trades and a master at most throughout his life. As a youth, his love for baseball later earned him a position on the Mexican American baseball athletic club league of Pomona Valley, Ca., in 1947. He was an accomplished athlete and also participated in the California Golden Gloves amateur boxing program in local regional tournaments throughout the state. He was a longtime member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 12 since 1952.

He had a great love for working and shaping the land and running various heavy equipment. After working for many companies and learning the trade carving out roads and city streets for new subdivisions throughout the Los Angeles area, he relocated his family to the high desert in Newberry Springs, Ca. where he formed his own construction company, Frank’s Excavating.

There he built the first ever man-made water ski tournament venue for Horton Lakes Water Ski School, for which his vision and creation was later a pattern copied by other tournament ski lakes around the world. His talent and skilled excavations built mobile home pads, various catfish ponds, water park lakes, wells, etc., and transformed the vast desert terrain into beautiful home sites within the Mohave desert valley.

Frank was a kindred soul who loved life, animals, people, family and kids. Everyone who ever met and knew Frank loved him. He was a gifted man in so many ways and very mechanically inclined. His life lessons and construction skills helped shape the lives of many young men in the area for the better; teaching to drive and operate heavy equipment, etc. to anyone that was interested, he helped and inspired them to go on to have successful lives and careers. Frank was a very strong man, with a very caring heart and he was known to literally give you the shirt right off his back if you liked it.

He loved and held dear the Colorado River, swimming with longtime friends, and visiting family at the Mojave Reservation in Needles, Ca. He spent a lot of time there as a young teen and would hop a train from LA to get there. Throughout his adult life, he took his family and friends there to camp, waterski and float the river. It was one of his all time favorite places and truly his second home.

Frank is preceded in death by his parents and son, Frankie R. Yrigoyen, his older brothers’ Jess, Anthony, and Louie Yrigoyen, and his younger sister, Aurora Yrigoyen Jackson.

He is survived by his daughters, Anita Enriquez(Jesse), of Burbank, Ca. and Christina Mitchell(Steve), of Junction City, Ar., his sons, Arthur Yrigoyen(Florencita) of Newberry Springs, Ca. and Steven Yrigoyen of Helendale, Ca., his nephew, Chito Yrigoyen of Parker, Az., his niece, Lydia Yrigoyen Gonzalez of Banning, Ca., and Candace Andrade of Pasadena, Ca., his grandchildren, Susan Alexander, Mia Baker(Ryan), Jess Huizar(Felicia), of Los Angeles, Ca., Shirley Mitchell Whittle(Scott), of Fayetteville, Ar., Mary Mitchell, of Phoenix, Az., Jamie Mitchell, of Jacksonville, Fl., Alexandria Miller(Brandon) of Los Angeles, Ca., Rhonda, Paula & Anthony Yrigoyen, of San Diego, Ca., and his great-grandchildren, Aaron Huizar, Aidan & Makenna Amedee, Emma Hebert, Treyton, Collin & Keaton Whittle, Cielle, Simone, Scarlette & Bijou Baker, and Reece & Athia Yrigoyen, along with several stepchildren, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Frank’s memorial service will be held in Laughlin, Nevada on September 27, 2025. Further details will be announced as they become available.