Houston, TX – Visitation will be held Wednesday and a memorial service will be held Thursday in Geneva for Raymond Kiligian III, 28, who died unexpectedly Feb. 17 in his Houston, TX, townhome.
The visitation will take place from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, at Yurs Funeral Home in Geneva. The memorial service is schedule for 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, at the funeral home.
Kaligian moved to Geneva in third grade and graduated from Geneva High School in 2003, according to his obituary on the Yurs Funeral Home website.
At GHS, he was conference golf champion in 2002 and was named to the all-conference baseball team his junior and senior years, the obituary says. He was a member of the National Honor Society and a Key Club member, and he was named Science Student of the Year and Athlete of the Year at the end of his senior year.
According to a report in the Daily Herald, Kaligian died in his Houston, TX, apartment after his car’s remote-control starter was turned on accidentally. Mike McCormick, a family friend and Geneva School Board member, told the Daily Herald that a vaccuum tube in the garage allowed carbon monoxide to escape into Kaligian’s bedroom, where he slept.
Kaligian’s dog, Willie, died by his side.
Kaligian graduated from the University of Illinois in 2007 with a degree in chemical engineering and moved to Houston to work for Phillips 66 as part of the company’s Selective Leader Development Program. He was recently promoted to the position of Phillips 66 director of base oil sales.
I don’t ever recall a young man that has touched the hearts of so many. I will always see that gleam in his eye, that ever yearning to learn and somehow there was a bit of innocence that set him apart from others. He was a rising star of Phillips 66, said Jim Gigante of Phillips 66.
Kaligian loved music and played guitar. In addition to golf and baseball, he enjoyed mountain biking, white water river rafting and travel.
He is survived by his parents, Ray and Bobbie (Barron) Kaligian, his grandmother, Carmela Principe, grandfather Ray (Ann) Kaligian and many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends in Texas, West Virginia, Illinois and Massachusetts.