Shawn Q. Ahlers

July 21, 1970 - March 15, 2026

Shawn was an incredible, enigmatic, extremely intelligent gift to this earth. He was born in Minneapolis, and after moves to Oregon and Los Angeles, spent the majority of his childhood on a cattle ranch in the Gold Country of northern California. He wrangled cattle, raised pigs, pitched baseballs, skateboarded, and restored his beloved classic VW Beetle. After DJing clubs and learning to code in San Francisco during the tech boom, he traversed cross country on the California Zephyr to Washington D.C. with a bag of personal items and a box of his favorite records.

With his signature determination and technical prowess, he worked his way into the world of government contracting in D.C. while continuing to DJ on the side. He formed close and wonderful relationships with his friends through a shared love of music and lively conversations, and the respect of his colleagues for his deep knowledge combined with an approachable and affable manner. He was married briefly twice and met his love Suzie online in 2004 the day before heading to Peru to complete the 4-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. They had their first date when he returned from his trip and spent the next 22 years together. In 2006 they moved to Denver and were married later that year, and were ecstatic to welcome their child Elly in 2008.

For the past 15 years, Shawn worked at Hewlett Packard Enterprise where he attained their top designation in his role as Master Architect for End User Computing. He built a record studio at home to continuously experiment with music and sounds. He cherished sharing his expertise on a huge variety of topics and processes, and maddeningly was usually right! He loved animals & his pets, snowboarding, Liverpool F.C., roadtrips & family camping trips in 'The Beast', traveling near & far, SD hunting trips with the Ahlers, stargazing, collecting rocks, iterating on the front garden, telling jokes & stories, gaming, watching films & documentaries, enjoying good whisky, time in and on the water, and yelling at cars going too fast down Champa St. He possessed an insatiable curiosity and was fascinated by nature, history, languages, walls of sound, art, geology, and especially the cosmos. He had a sharp eye for design and beauty that he pored into his historic homes, and was ever fascinated by gestures as Milan Kundera wrote of them. While he battled cancer, Shawn added a tattoo to his chest to remind himself and us all: Tutto Passa (Everything Passes). Shawn Ahlers died peacefully but far too soon on the Ides of March with Suzie and Elly holding his hands. He is forever loved and missed.

Details on Shawn's Celebration of Life will be shared privately by email.