Ian Rex Rawlinson

Ian Rex Rawlinson

May 5, 1978 - July 20, 2024


With great sorrow we share that our beloved son, Ian Rex Rawlinson has passed on. Heaven has gained another angel.


Ian was a bright, joyful child, our third son. He played AYSO soccer and little league baseball as catcher for his brother Neil as pitcher. One summer at soccer camp he was goalie, and a kid kicked him hard in the arm as he dove for the ball, breaking his arm. He was upset because the goal counted! He attended Laurel Hall School where he won the science fair six years in a row. One year he taught a mouse to ring a bell for food when he got hungry. He had the highest entrance exam the school had ever seen when he applied for Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. He enjoyed cross country running, mountain biking, and swimming.


Ian was a professional musician, excelling at bagpipes and piano. There wasn’t a musical instrument Ian couldn’t play, and he also played harmonica and tin whistle. Ian was a bagpiping student of Seumas Coyne, world champion Jimmy McColl, and Eric Rigler (who did the music for Braveheart). Ian was one of the bagpipers on the album Tubular Bells II. Ian won the North American individual bagpiping championship at Maxville, Canada, and also won Toronto the same year as a twelve year old. He played with the City of Glendale Pipe Band and was the youngest member of the World Champion L.A. Scots. A frequent winner of bagpiping competitions, Ian also played shuttle pipes and the small Scottish pipes. He had numerous students and performed inter alia for actor Glenn Ford shortly before his death. Ian also did some composing.


Ian was a graduate of Notre Dame High School and briefly attended Pierce College. He was an avid gardener and loved nature and the outdoors. He was a good cook and loved to travel. His favorite tree was the Silver Leaf Maple, one of which he planted in front of our Valley Village home and another in our front yard in West Hills. Ian also planted our numerous strawberries and a lot of the flowers in our flowerbeds and on our hillside slopes.


Our family has many wonderful memories with Ian: hours of playing catch and batting practice with Dad and his two big brothers, trips to the baseball card shop, basketball, a game of horse, or a game of pig, shoot-outs with his brothers and cousins Sean and Steve, and 5K runs with Mom. Riding bikes on the dirt trails, roller blading, or street hockey, Ian was always active. He would go Mountain Biking with our Jack Russell Terrier, who he named Patrick, and the two of them never grew tired of each other. We enjoyed many family hikes with Ian here at home and at the National Parks we visited: Glacier, Yellowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion & Bryce, fishing in Montana, and family vacations to Michigan, Minnesota, Scotland, Ireland, and Washington, DC. We enjoyed family get togethers, swimming pool races, Marco Pollo, and bellyflop contests with his big brothers. The boys also shot cans and targets with their BB guns and did many beach trips to go boogie boarding. Ian inherited our Mercedes Benz 240 D, the slowest car in the world, when his brother bought a Mustang, and made it live up to what it said on over the license plate: “Wherever You Go, There You Are.”


Ian was a good writer, who one administrator at his high school said was the best student writer he’d ever seen. Opinions are subjective, but it was clear to everyone Ian had an active imagination and followed his heart wherever he thought it might lead him, as musicians, artists, and writers tend to do, trying to conform things to the way they ought to be rather than accepting them the way they are.


Ian is survived by his parents, Maureen and Rex, and his brothers, Justin, Neil, Seumas and Cameron. He has numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. Ian was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Joseph and Elaine Rawlinson, and his maternal grandparents, Rudolph and Marjorie Jimenez, and his favorite cousin, Rachel Jimenez. The last thing his grandfather Joseph Rawlinson said to him was “Don’t you know who you are?” meaning that in eternity, Ian was someone unique and special, just like every other human being. Now they are together, and they have a lot to talk about.


Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.


All services will be private.