Christian Theodor Kortlang

November 28, 1958 – July 18, 2023

Christian T. Kortlang passed away on 18 July 2023 from complications of recently diagnosed cancer. While he missed his routines during recent months of illness, such as walks around the neighborhood, and the family’s previously annual trips to the beach, Chris’s characteristic thoughtfulness, optimism and sense of humor, shone through to the nurses and staff who tended to him through various hospital stays and while in a physical rehabilitation inpatient setting. Amid a series of medical setbacks, he also enjoyed frequent visits from his family and kept up with the events in their lives—a new house, a new baby on the way, a new job, a pet corgi’s recovery from a raisin-eating misadventure, and updates on repairs to the house. He also kept up with events around the world and enjoyed reading the newspaper every day, preferably with a hot latte in hand.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Christian was the middle child of a prolific and versatile artist, Diederich Kortlang, of Cologne, Germany, and artist, homemaker and educator, Federica (Erika) Sanchez originally from Barcelona, Spain. Chris grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in a vibrant international artists’ colony composed of expatriates, local artisans and ranchers and their families. Chris always said that growing up in this historic town with its cobblestone streets, open-air markets like Mercado Ignacio Ramirez, enjoying delicious street food like taquitos and licuados (a type of smoothie) sold from a cart, and the freedom, as a child, to roam in the central “Jardin” with its strolling mariachi bands in the evenings, mixing into the crowds at the town’s frequent festivals, and going swimming with his family at the nearby Taboada springs was as close as it gets to a paradise for a child. As a child, he visited his father at work in his artist’s studio in a park close to home. Family vacations to the beach at Zihuatenejo, Mexico rounded out that perfect childhood, in his view, and one of his greatest joys was introducing his daughter, Melissa, to Zihautenejo when she was only about a year old. [photo]

In his teen years, Chris went to high school in Wisconsin, where he later graduated from Carthage College in 1980 with a BA in History. He worked in the early 1980s in San Miguel de Allende helping his brother, Luis, and his wife create and run a then-popular restaurant, known as “La Casita.” He met his wife-to-be, Carol, while he was working in the restaurant field in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. in 1985: the two of them married in Nicosia, Cyprus in January, 1990 with their close friends, Beth and Pascal, and Carol’s mother, Libbie, attending as guests and serving as witnesses. Christian and Carol honeymooned in Istanbul, Turkey and later in Spain. During a brief stint the couple lived in Israel where Chris won a contract to overhaul the cafeteria of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv which he rapidly transformed into a popular eatery for embassy staff. Chris went on to make a career in the food services industry, helping to set up and open several restaurant locations for the Washington, DC metro region-based company Via Cucina/La Prima for which he worked for thirty years. He was responsible for preparing and serving food at large corporate gatherings.

Christian loved to travel. His last trip abroad was with his wife, Carol when they went to Portugal in September 2019, where they enjoyed the sights, food and wines in Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon, and Cascais, and to Italy where they visited with his Aunt Johanna and Uncle Ingo at their summer home in Italy on the Emerald Coast of Sardinia. Chris also traveled extensively with Carol and Melissa to Mexico and elsewhere in Central America, Europe, and Canada. One of his dreams was to return to Zihuatenejo, Mexico.

Another of Chris’s passions was cooking especially for family gatherings whether in Reston, VA or in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi or elsewhere. He enjoyed cooking with his sisters-in-law Cristina and Lori. He also loved family trips to the Outer Banks, NC and sharing large home-cooked meals at the beach with his extended family. He loved to go fishing off the pier at the beach; even if he didn’t catch anything, it was enough for him to be out in the open sea air. Going camping and fishing along the Shenandoah River was another favorite past-time as was staying in bed-and breakfasts throughout the Shenandoah Valley. He loved Bailey, his yellow Labrador who joined the family as a puppy in 2006 and stayed by his side for the next 14 years. Bailey and Christian were frequently sighted on their walks together on the trails around Lake Anne and Lake Newport in Reston, as well as in the Tall Oaks woods near Lake Fairfax. He loved watching the World Cup and watched every game in the last season, exchanging comments by text with his sister-in-law Lori, also watching from her home in Houston. He was the proud father of a beautiful bride at Melissa’s wedding to Matt in October 2017.

Taking care of flowers and plants was a favorite past-time—along with his devotion to keeping two fountains functional and flowing in the front and the back of the house. Finally, the need to stay closer to home during the pandemic led him to rediscover a passion for reading books, especially those by Barbara Kingsolver as well as Braiding Sweetgrass and other books on nature and trees. Becoming “Opi” and taking care of his new granddaughter, Hallie—who was born in the early weeks of the pandemic—was another highlight for him during this time of staying closer to home.

Christian got his first job at the age of eight, when he worked as a golf caddy in San Miguel de Allende. He loved to work with people and seemed to thrive with the responsibilities each job entailed. When the pandemic upended the corporate catering business he supported, he turned to helping people in need get donated food assistance.

His love of life and compassion for others touched everyone who met him. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Carol; daughter Melissa and her husband, Matt; granddaughter Hallie; sister Erika (Kika) and her husband, Jose, of Rio Rico, Arizona, and their children, Jan Christian of Seattle, Washington, Daniela of Rio Rico, Arizona; and Stephanie of Kansas City, Missouri; and his brother- and sister-in-law Mark and Lori; niece Drew and her husband Jeff and their children of Houston, Texas; and his nephew Peter and his wife, Alyssa, and their children of Irvine, California, as well as by sister-in-law Cristina and her daughter, Leah of Baltimore, Maryland; his father-in-law, Bob and his wife, Uschi, of Karlsruhe and Jockgrim, Germany and Uschi’s sons Philipp and Christoph; by his Aunt Johanna and Uncle Ingo of Ratingen, Germany, and their sons Endres, Christoph and Daniel, also in Germany; and by his niece, Natasha of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and her mother, his sister-in-law, Karen of Racine, Wisconsin. Christian was preceded in death by his father, Diederich, his grandparents Luis and Itze; his brother, Luis, his mother, Erika, and his brother-in-law Andy. A celebration of life event will be held in Christian’s memory on Sunday, September 10, 2023, for family and friends.