Todd William Holbrook

In Memory of Todd Holbrook

We lost our wonderful husband, father, son, brother and uncle over the weekend.

We are in shock and completely devastated to share that Todd unexpectedly passed away Sunday morning, June 2nd. He had ileostomy reversal surgery on Tuesday and was released from the hospital late Friday afternoon. By late Saturday afternoon (24 hours later) we called 911. We don’t have clear answers as to what happened. We are dazed and living in a surreal world.

Todd William Holbrook was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on July 28, 1962, and left us on June 2, 2024, at the age of 61. He left us far too soon from apparent complications following surgery, after appearing to be free from the 2 different stage IV cancers he has battled over the last year and a half.

Todd grew up in Las Vegas with his 3 siblings, Lori, Troy and Traci (Yuran). He loved to tell stories of growing up in a time of constantly being outside riding bikes all over town, playing street games with friends, and coming home when the street lights went on. His parents are Dick (deceased) and Carolyn Holbrook.

He loved playing sports as a kid. He played baseball and football on the junior high and high school teams and earned a full-ride baseball scholarship to Arizona State as a junior. He played for ASU for 2 seasons. He continued to love watching sports, and football and NASCAR were his most loved in recent years. He was a big Kyle Larsen NASCAR fan!

Professionally he spent a number of years in the Las Vegas hotel industry and then opened his own landscape design business. His creativity and love of plants earned him awards for his designs. He moved to Southern California about 32 years ago, and ultimately developed a long career in multi-media design, digital marketing and operations in the software development industry.

Tracy had the incredible fortune to be married to him for 28 years (together for 30 years) and has cherished every minute of life’s journey together. He was her best friend, and could not have asked for a better partner. He supported and encouraged her and their family in all aspects of life. Their hearts are joined forever.

He had 2 sons, who he loved more than anything in the world. Chris (42) and his wife, Darcy live in Pleasanton, CA where Chris works for the San Ramon Police Department. Chris has done so many adventurous and courageous things in life. He excelled in the army, was a wildfire hotshot, private security for the Federal Reserve and has worked as a police officer in 3 different cities. Not to mention he’s an amazingly caring and incredible human being. Robert (21) lives at home and has a mind like his dad. He’s very inquisitive, tech-savvy and loves music, history and aviation. He’s a wise and strong “old soul”, with a deeply caring heart and a very bright future ahead of him. Todd was so proud of his boys.

Todd was a creative soul. It was part of his DNA. He always had to have a creative outlet and hobby going. He spent many years woodworking, but enjoyed refurbishing the vintage equipment and collecting old hand planes just as much! Plants and gardening thrived under his green thumb. He loved music of a wide variety of genres. He knew the most obscure facts, and it was fun to listen to old albums he had collected.

His baby was his 1967 black Firebird. He spent many, many hours taking care of it and slowly restoring it. It brought him so much peace and joy. He and Rob loved to go driving down PCH, to Dana Point Harbor and around south Orange County with the windows down and music blaring! Our dog Tango used to love riding in the back seat with his head out the window, and a walk at the harbor too.

He was the consummate handyman. He could fix anything. He didn’t always enjoy being a handyman, but he hated paying someone to do something he could do. Painting, laying tile, or other home design or maintenance was in his skill set too. He also took on grooming our 2 dogs for the last several years. He was a jack of all trades!

Obviously, we are in a surreal world right now. It doesn’t seem possible that Todd won’t come walking through the door with a smile on his face. We are lost without him.

Todd, Tracy and Rob had been planning to move to Colorado in the next month or two. Tracy has been looking for a job, and they had planned to move as Todd healed from this surgery. That plan is still in place for Tracy and Rob.

We have been overwhelmed with love and flowers to bring us joy and brighten our home. We are so thankful for that gift. Going forward, in lieu of flowers we ask for prayers, support and encouragement in adjusting to life without Todd, organizing and planning the move to Colorado, and for Tracy to secure a position that provides for the needs of their family.

We encourage you to leave a note or story about Todd. We want to celebrate his life and the incredible person that he was. A celebration of life will be planned for him in the coming months.

With Broken Hearts, Tracy, Chris, Rob and family