Samuel James Latiolais Wahlberg

Samuel James Latiolais Wahlberg

May 21,1991-March 29, 2025

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our son Sam.

His passion for film, music, art and social justice was unstoppable. He collected movies that ranged from the classics to the genuinely weird. He watched Quentin Tarantino movies so many times that he had memorized the dialogue.

Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Anderson, Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, Lynch, Kubrick, Kurosawa, musicals, animation, horror (and anything else you could possibly imagine)—all side by side in his collection.

His musical tastes were wild. From Slash to Duke Ellington…Ska to Zeppelin…Gorillaz to Pink Floyd… Heavy Metal to Beethoven—he listened to thousands of albums.Sam was more comfortable alone in an art museum than in a crowd. Salvador Dali was hilarious…Picasso a genius.

He dreaded the plane ride but loved Normandy, Florence, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Bruges and the European countryside. The movie set at Hobbit Town New Zealand filled his imagination. He enjoyed the reefs of Cozumel and Maui.

We walked the streets of Paris and found the script to the movie ‘In Bruges’ at a stand by the Seine. He found a vintage robot along the Costa Brava in Spain.

Sam graduated from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in 2014, but left us with far too few paintings.

He had an active and curious mind. He was tender and sensitive. He was tortured by injustice, intolerance, environmental abuse and corporate greed. He was passionate about politics and outraged by the lies of our “so called leaders.”

He was in immense pain—a pain so deep none of us could fully comprehend.

In Amsterdam Sam was captured by a Van Gogh painting.. crows are soaring from a wheat field into a dark sky…there is a path that just ends.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday April 26 at 4 PM. Horan & McConaty 5303 E. County Line Rd. Centennial Co 80122.

In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to: 

World Central Kitchen (Paypal-@worldcentralkitchen) or online-wck.org.

Please share your memories of Sam and condolences with is his family by signing the guest book below.