Christopher "Chris" Motch
July 25, 1975 - February 28, 2025
State College, Pennsylvania - Christopher "Chris" Motch, 49, of State College, died Friday, February 28, peacefully at home, ending what had been a brave nearly ten-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS.
Born outside of London, UK on July 25 1975, he was the only child of Jacquelen Gimmer who currently resides in Norfolk, UK. Married on August 14, 2017, he is survived by his devoted wife, Maureen P. Holtz, originally from the Pittsburgh area, and talented daughter Violet A. Motch, who is currently a freshman in Penn State University's Architectural Engineering program. He is also survived by various relatives in the UK and abroad and his cherished mini dachshund Beane, who rarely left his side.
Before moving to America, Chris graduated a dual degree program at The University of Sussex. He obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Having spent the foundational years of his career on the west coast of Portland, OR and Salt Lake City, UT; his primary experience was in development and database management. Then he made his way to State College, where AccuWeather was the beneficiary of his prolific skill set.
He was a dedicated and respected colleague in the Penn State IT campus community for nearly 17 years. As his disease progressed slowly, Chris researched tools or fashioned his own solutions to best facilitate his needs, up to and including tweaking commercial eye gaze software to allow him to "drive" his power chair with his eyes and to operate an onscreen keyboard so that he could speak and continue to code at great speed. To say he was a power user was indeed an understatement.
His innovations and work ethic were a constant amazement to all who knew him as ALS is not only mentally debilitating, but gut wrenchingly painful as well. In life he took advantage of every opportunity to participate in ALS or other related research studies (as part of his condition as his was not linked to any familial history), upon discovery at the neurology clinic at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA. As he was committed to participating in additional research and with those goals in mind, his brain and spinal material and other samplers were donated to the UPMC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, ADRC in Pittsburgh at the time of his passing. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in his name to ADRC at
adrc.pitt.edu.
A service will be held to celebrate Chris Motch's life on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 3:30 p.m. at Koch Funeral Home, 2401 S. Atherton St., State College, with Celebrant Jackie Naginey Hook officiating.
Arrangements are under the care of Koch Funeral Home, State College. Online condolences may be entered at
www.kochfuneralhome.com.

Published by Centre Daily Times from Mar. 7 to Mar. 12, 2025.