TORRINGTON – Graveside services for Simon Ricardo Lozano, 79, will be held 11 a.m. Friday March 21, 2025, at the Valley View Cemetery with Julie Newman officiating. Simon passed away March 15, 2025, at Torrington Community Hospital and cremation has taken place.
The family invites everyone to a reception to celebrate Simon’s life at 2 p.m. at the Rendezvous Center. In lieu of flowers the family kindly requests that memorials be made to the Torrington High School Softball Team. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and condolences may be sent to www.colyerfuneralhome.com
Simon Ricardo Lozano – known as Dick to those who knew him longest – shaped the people around him the way a river shapes the land: steadily, persistently, with strength that whispered as much as it roared. He was a husband, father, grandfather, brother, teacher, mentor, coach and friend. But above all, he was a man who made those he loved to believe in themselves. A second-generation American-Mexican, he carried his heritage with immense pride.
He was born on October 3, 1945, to Felipa and Simon Lozano, in Laramie, Wyoming. He was raised on the Platte Valley Ranch in McKinley, Wyoming, by his grandparents (Salvador and Luisa Mandujano) whom he called mom and dad. There he learned everything that mattered: how to turn a hard-scrabble life into a lasting legacy, how to fix anything with whatever was lying around, and how to move through the world with quiet strength. Even as a four-year-old, he was up before dawn working the land and tending the animals with Salvador and his Uncle Manuel. He was raised alongside his brothers, sisters and cousins – though on the ranch, there was no such thing as “half” or “distant.” They shared a childhood full of adventure, loyalty, and resilience. Though life wasn’t always easy, they stood by each other. To them, he was the king of their kingdom – the one they followed, learned from, and turned to when they needed to be reminded of who they were.
At 17, Simon enlisted in the U.S. Navy and went through 32 weeks of Electrician Mate’s school. He was a Vietnam combat veteran, serving from 1963-1966 on the USS Lucid. In 1966, he volunteered for River Patrol so he could keep receiving combat pay – $88 a month – to buy a brand-new Mustang. The cost of war did not end when the fighting stopped. Agent Orange would claim countless lives, and, in the end, it made Simon a casualty of the Vietnam War.
At the heart of his life was Nancy, his wife of 58 years. They met in the spring of 1967 at Casper College. They weren’t supposed to date at the time, but they broke the rules, and the world is better for it. They never stopped holding hands, always fought hard to keep each other safe and loved and chose each other over and over again. Whenever anything went wrong, he would always say: “As long as we have each other, that’s all we need, Nance.”
Simon and Nancy married on July 13, 1968. The pride of Simon’s life were his five kids – two sets of twins born in 1969 (Dawn and Diane) and 1972 (Amy and Dc) and Aaron in 1980. Simon adored his seven grandkids, Simon, Jade, Kennedy, Zoey, Lucy, Theo and Mable. He embraced his children’s spouses, Anthony, Jenny, and Abby, as his own.
Simon taught English at Torrington High School for 33 years and St. Joseph’s Children’s Home for five years, shaping the lives of generations of students, many who claimed him as their favorite teacher. He didn’t just teach grammar and sentence structure; he taught people to think, to question, and to view the world beyond their own experience.
He coached basketball, volleyball, softball, tee-ball and little league, as well as directed plays. He was a proud and active member of the teachers’ union, including leading a teachers’ strike. We will carry Simon’s legacy forward – not just in memory, but in action. In the way we stand up for what is right. In the way we love fiercely. In the way we believe in ourselves because he believed in us first. No matter where you go, someone will have a story about Simon Lozano. So in lieu of flowers, we ask you to tell those stories – share them, keep them alive and remind the world of the extraordinary man we were lucky enough to call ours.
Before he left, he made one thing clear: “I love you guys. You all need to celebrate.” And so, we will.
