Andrew William Jubera III

Andrew William Jubera III was born on what felt like the hottest day in the history of Dallas, TX., at 11:11 A.M.., July 11, 1983. He blossomed in the heat. He could ride a bicycle almost before he could walk. He was fluent in Spanish by high school, learning the language from the many native speakers who became his friends at Garden Hills Elementary, Sutton Middle, and North Atlanta High, where he graduated in 2001. He spent a semester in Salamanca, Spain, through an Atlanta Public Schools program that placed a dozen students in the homes of families throughout Spain and France. While at North Atlanta, Andrew also met Jemika. They hung out together, went to prom together and, 12 years later, became parents of a beautiful boy named Micah.

Andrew attended Warren Wilson College near Asheville, N.C.., spending his junior year studying architecture at the College of Charleston (S.C..), and earned his degree in historic preservation. He worked hard at school and on the campus farm - he could've gotten a second degree in hard work. He never lost that trait. He took summer jobs on blueberry farms in rural Georgia, sometimes sleeping in the fields under the stars. While interning with an archeological firm, he spent one summer in south Carolina on a two-man boat painstakingly mapping the cuts, rivers and backwaters of the original Low Country rice paddies. Andrew loved it: quiet, meticulous, outside work, under a hot sun, it fit him like a glove.

In the years since college, Andrew worked primarily as a stone mason. He built walls (the one along the park near Ponce City Market is his), sidewalks, stairs, and magisterial brick ovens. He played with rocks constantly as a kid, and as an adult seemed to know intuitively everything about their composition, their strengths and weaknesses, what they were capable of and how they could best be used. A favorite quote of Andrew's was from Louis Kahn, one of the 20th century's great architects. Kahn once talked about conversing with a brick before a project, asking it what it wanted to be. "I like an arch," the brick told him. Kahn tried to talk the brick out of the idea, since an arch added unneeded difficulty and expense to the project. Khan suggested more practical alternatives, only to have the brick insist, "I like an arch." So Kahn built an arch.

Andrew built a life. It was particular to him and no one else. He seemed to know every street, lane and trail in all of Atlanta from having walked, biked or driven over every single one. He knew the precise contours of neighborhoods, especially the hidden or forgotten ones, pointed out astonishing details on buildings others passed a thousand times without noticing, and knew shortcuts to shortcuts. When he worked out of town, he learned a new city's streets, and the hidden gems they contained, in no time- thoroughly, innately.

Andrew was a quiet, gentle, observant soul. He had the brownest eyes and brightest smile. He had strong, hard hands. His wit was as dry and whimsical as star dust. He loved Micah and Jemika, and his twin siblings Mary Louise and Frankie. In his death, on June 24, 2020, at age 36, he also left behind his father, Drew Jubera, his mother, Cynthia Hizer, and his stepmother, Ann Hardie, as well as a parade of wondrous aunts, uncles and cousins. All loved him, and love him still. May he rest in peace.

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