Michael Lamon

Michael Alexander Lamon

Michael's family, friends, and colleagues lost a beloved son, brother, and companion when he passed on March 24, 2025, in San Diego. Michael was a voracious student of everything life offered and enthusiastically committed himself to chess, Spanish, computer software, competitive Salsa dancing, medical school, and all things food.

Born on August 12, 1972, in Bandung, Indonesia, Michael's family moved to the US in 1979, where he thrived at a young age in academics and chess. Michael's chess ambition contributed to his reaching a National Master ranking at -- what was then considered young -- the age of 17. Michael completed his post-secondary education at UC San Diego, obtaining his BS and MS in Computer Science and Engineering in 1994 and 1996, respectively. After completing graduate school, Michael quickly embarked on his career, first in computer engineering, with work for the Mexican government to create computerized land use maps of Baja California. He followed this by moving from Ensenada to Boston, where he rose to the rank of Director of Product Development at Senior Systems; thereafter, he shifted to starting his venture, My ePersona, where he applied his skills as a middleware architect to developing software for small to large companies.

Throughout his first career, Michael contemplated how he could best make societal contributions; he made the ultimate pivot by diving into medical school. He began on this path by applying his native-level Spanish-speaking skills to serve as a volunteer translator for patients at the Massachusetts General Brigham Hospital. This was followed by returning as a full-time student for a year at Bennington College's post-baccalaureate premedical program. Thereafter, Michael moved to New Orleans, where he attended Tulane University School of Medicine and completed several rotations in other states.

Michael lived his life with intensity, meeting each day with a dedication to overcoming adversity and each challenge with fervor -- whether moving countries and states, starting a business, or making large-scale career changes. Michael was the embodiment of "Going Big". Generous with his heart and time, Michael had genuine lifelong friendships filled with high-spirited mischief and memory-making adventures. There are those who in their deliberate living, vigorously embark on a meaningful course of action, extending their friendship to all they meet along the way. Michael was that person.

Michael is survived by his family in California: parents Cynthia and James Lamon of San Diego County; sister Natalie (Richard Gigax) of Marin County; cousins in Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Texas, and the UK; and the many, many friends he's met along the way -- in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and Mexico -- and on whom he's made an indelible impression.