Nik Romano--aka nowhere2b

It is with broken hearts that we announce the passing of Nikolas Andreas Romano on September 21, 2023 in San Antonio at the age of 24.  Nik was born in Salt Lake City on April 6, 1999.  He earned a BS degree in Construction Management from the University of Texas at San Antonio. 

Nik crammed a lot of life in his almost 25 years. He traveled to Japan, France, Italy, and Canada.  Visited 41 of the 50 US states and counted among his closest friends people in Sweden and Spain.

If you knew Nik, you loved him.  He was intelligent, handsome, kind, and...different.  A friend once asked him if he thought he was special.  He responded by saying, no, he didn't think of himself as special but rather he thought of himself as unique.  He saw the world through his own eyes and on his own terms.

About a year ago, Nik discovered Chess.  He became obsessed with playing and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of the game.   He was relentless in his learning.  He played nearly 2500 games and watched countless hours of games on YouTube.  He would replay his games with me recounting his blunders and we would both be laughing but I knew he was learning from that mistake and would not make it again.  He had risen to a 1219 rating and had a goal of 1800.  I have no doubt that he would have made it.  He played his last game just a few hours before he died, which he won--going out with a victory!

His Mom and I are devastated with his passing.  Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair.  Nik would not want us to wallow in despair,  rather he would want us to help others in the way that he always did.  So we have set up a scholarship fund in Nik's name at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).  The goal is to create an endowed scholarship that will provide 4 students each year with $2500 towards their tuition.  This would continue to grow as tuition grows in the future and will be funded forever.  His mother and I have pledged $150,000.  Right now we are at $52,000, so we need to raise an additional $48,000 to make this a reality.  If there is anything you feel you could contribute, it would be greatly appreciated.  

Thank you for reading this,

Rick and Julianne Romano (Mom and Dad)

Link to fund:  https://fund.utsa.edu/project/39473/wall