Casimiro Cas Campos Torrez Jr.

June 4, 1932 - September 16, 2015

Cas Torrez died on September 16, 2015. He was 83. He departed this life holding his beloved Mary’s hand and surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During his last hour on earth, we prayed with him, sang hymns for him and read from the Bible. The feeling of love, peace and the presence of God in that room was overwhelming.

Cas was born Casimiro Campos Torres Jr. on June 4, 1932 near Georgetown, Texas. His parents, Casimiro and Felicita Torres, were farmers with a family of eleven children, he had five brothers and five sisters. In 1950 he married Mary Montoya. At some point Cas upgraded his surname from Torres to Torrez “with a Z.” The young Mr. and Mrs. Torrez moved from central Texas to the high plains of Lubbock, where they started a family, and young Cas got a job sweeping floors in a cabinet shop. That job is where his love of building things with wood began. He became a skilled carpenter and cabinetmaker, and worked hard to provide for his growing family. In 1968 Cas moved his family from Lubbock to Austin where the construction scene was booming. Torrez Trim and Cabinet worked on many beautiful homes in central Texas. Cas also built many well crafted pieces of furniture for the family and built all of the cabinets for Tree Of Life Church in Pflugerville, where he served faithfully as an Usher for over twenty years.

In 1950, an 18 year old Cas met the love of his life, Mary Montoya, a beautiful 16 year old from Waelder, Texas. This year (2015) they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. Cas was as devoted to “Mama” as Mary was to “Daddy.” They helped each other through the good times and the bad, sticking together through sickness and health, when rich or when poor, they were a team. Their love for each other is deep. In all those years together, (More than 24,000 days.) there were very probably less than ten nights that they were not together.

Cas was preceded in death by son Joe who died as an infant, son Benny who died at two years old, and son Raymond who died in 1998. Cas leaves behind his wife of 65 years, Mary Montoya Torrez and six children; son Rudy Torrez and wife Liz of Pflugerville; daughter Sylvia Sanders and husband David of Austin; son Fred Torrez and wife Yvonne of Pflugerville; daughter Rita Torrez of Pflugerville; daughter Eva Fletcher and husband Doug of Pflugerville; and daughter Esther Johnson and husband George of Pflugerville. Cas is also adored by 21 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and many friends.