Obituary of Keanan Ikaika McSorley

With the deepest sorrow in our hearts we announce, our beloved son, brother, grandson and friend Keanan Ikaika McSorley left this world unexpectedly on October 1, 2015 at our Santa Cruz, CA home. A lifelong resident of Santa Cruz, Keanan was born in Monterey, CA on April 4th, 1993. He attended Gault Elementary School as a kindergartener but went on to complete his elementary education at the Mountain Elementary School home-school program. Keanan then briefly attended Alternative Family Education (AFE), Branciforte Jr High and Harbor High before graduating in 2010, a year early, as class co-valedictorian from the Ark Independent Studies School. An exceedingly well-read and written, intelligent, creative young man, above all else, Keanan was a gifted musician. He was able to accurately whistle the complete theme to Stars Wars at age 3 and learned to beautifully play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata by ear at the age 8. Unsatisfied to simply learn, play and listen to the music of other artists, as a young adult he began composing and playing diverse genres of music from classical to analog/digital sampling and collage to noise improv on instruments ranging from the piano, banjo, and guitar to the Nintendo Game Boy. Please take a moment to listen to some of his work on Soundcloud.com at his account Somarlithr. He also collaborated with his dear friends to make unique music on Cowing Zounds also on Soundcloud.com. In recent years, Keanan attended several semesters at Cabrillo College but strongly felt that organized education was not the right fit for him. He decided to continue educating himself while working at the Bagelry in Santa Cruz/Soquel, exploring at the same time what the next step on his life path would be. He greatly enjoyed his work at the Bagelry with wonderful coworkers and the opportunity to meet and make a wide and diverse variety of new friends. Keanan's loving open-heartedness made him a person who had never met a stranger his whole life. Even as a young child, he easily struck up interesting conversations with anyone open to connecting with him. Keanan is deeply loved by his family and friends and there are no words that can adequately describe or communicate the depth of loss and sorrow that we are all experiencing from his unexpected and untimely departing. One small comfort is that on his wrists, Keanan had tattoos written in Futhark runes that read "The blood is my strength" on his left wrist and "I'm not alone" on his right wrist. Keanan's family and friends know that our beloved Keanan will forever be in our blood, hearts and minds and he will eternally be with us and never alone. Keanan is survived by his mother Jennifer McSorley, his father Sean McSorley, his sister Teagan McSorley as well as maternal grandparents Julie and Tim Stephens, predeceased maternal grandfather Lairy Brookshire, paternal grandparents Julie and Silvio Bernardi and Robert McSorley, aunts Susan Brookshire and Cassie McSorley, uncles Christopher Brookshire, Travis McSorley and Rick Moore. He is also survived by his cousins Lauren, Jessica, Steven, Sabastian and Mackenzie, as well as Mary and John Hayes and their daughters Iliana and Norah and Brodie Lang and her son Karl. He will be greatly missed by his dearest girlfriend Jasper Roane and many friends. Services have been held. Memorial contributions in Keanan's memory can be made to Trips for Kids Santa Cruz, a nonprofit organization that takes at-risk youth on mountain bike rides in Santa Cruz County at http//tripsforkidssantacruz.org