Carlos Alberto Fernandez

CARY - Carlos Alberto Fernandez, age 64, unexpectedly passed away in his sleep late in the night of January 22nd, 2026. He was a great person and an excellent father. One might be tempted to think he died in an unremarkable way, but there was nothing unremarkable about the love he had for others in his life. He had six kids he loved dearly: Victoria, Beans, Christopher, Alex, Patricia, and Peter. He had a brother named Florentino Jr. he diligently kept in touch with, along with two nephews-Michael and Matthew. He had two parents he never forgot: Esther and Florentino Sr. At work he was well respected as both brilliant and kind (and maybe even a little fun). At his pool hall he was a reliable friend and coach to all. At home, he was a dad who would always find a solution to whatever problem you brought him, and always cared to hear whatever his children were passionate about.

Throughout his life, Carlos Fernandez loved and served everyone that came into his life. Of course everyone loves and serves in their lives; this is a universal human calling. Love is what gives our lives meaning. But there was something about Carlos Fernandez that made him uniquely capable of loving and serving others to a degree that can be safely regarded as exceptional. And this something was that Carlos Fernandez was generous, humble, curious, and-of course-fun. Maybe he was just a Pisces man, but perhaps he was just so uniquely Carlos that his capacity to love transcends the ability to adequately describe it.

Carlos demonstrated selflessness and generosity in many aspects of his life. He lived a very simple life and was frugal in order to provide for his six children, helping them pursue various college degrees, cars, insurance plans, helping them move in and out of countless apartments as they traversed the different phases of young adulthood. He was generous with friends and family, and with his coworkers too. As his kids got older, Carlos would often cover weekends and holidays for his team at Cisco, understanding the value of spending time with your kids and wanting to gift that time to his coworkers. He understood what was most important in life. One might mistake his insistence on financial responsibility as a kind of greed. But such an interpretation could not be further from the truth. Carlos Fernandez was careful with his money so he could afford to be as generous as possible, as his ability to be generous to others meant everything to him. Those who know him know just how little he spent on himself, and how much he needed to be coaxed into taking any genuine vacation or luxury.

Carlos was extremely intelligent and strongly opinionated. From computers, to AI, to politics, to even food and restaurant supplies, Carlos had an opinion on everything and he would give you remarkably detailed and specific reasons for what he thought. Often, he would laugh and loudly boast that he knew everything, as he had the humility to fully admit that he would really like to know everything. But as remarkably detailed and well informed his opinions were, he had the wisdom to not take them too seriously and to laugh at them on occasion. In his more serious moments, he would make it abundantly clear to each and every one of his kids that he did not, in fact, know everything and that he was still very much a work in progress. Nonetheless, he still loved to be told he was right; especially when his kids hated to admit it.

Carlos was always curious and loved the challenge of solving problems. He told his kids that he knew he wanted to be an engineer ever since he was a kid. To illustrate this point in his usual style, he brought up a story from his childhood. One day he saw his own father struggling to install a light fixture. He then promptly told his dad that he could fix it. He did not know how to fix it. But through a powerful concoction of trial and error and intuitive brilliance, he looked at the wires and was able to discern which ones were connected to which, and he was able to figure out how to properly install the lightbulb fixture. This appropriately endearing anecdote perfectly represents Carlos' approach to life: he was always curious and determined to learn and solve problems. This curiosity and determination fueled Carlos' interest in computer science, delving into the world of computers in the 1980s when so many questions and problems remained to be solved, and then after leaving the field to work with his father, returning again in the 2000s after he had missed the internet boom (a fact he was rightfully proud of, for few told him he would be able to, yet through sheer diligent curiosity he persevered). But of course he wouldn't keep an approach to life that had served him so well to himself. He also encouraged this curiosity in his kids, with all six of his children retaining this curiosity in various ways. Perhaps it is fitting that a man so in love with the world he lived in wanted to know everything about it.

Carlos was an autodidact in one of the most difficult fields to understand. He never got a college degree in computer engineering, he learned everything on his own. His bookshelves were filled with manuals on programming languages. When he was passionate about something, he was determined to learn and improve as much as possible. He demonstrated this passion not only in his career but in his hobbies, learning professional photography and reaching level 8 in competitive 9-ball pool tournaments. His bookshelves also contained books on billiards, chess, a multi-volume analysis of the Gospel of John, and much more.

But as talented and generous as Carlos was, one cannot complete a picture of the person he was without devoting some choice words about his humor. He had a joke for every situation, sometimes including those situations that shouldn't have jokes. But joke he did, as joking made both his life and the lives of those around him feel a little less heavy. He had a recurring joke he would make, during the many times one of his many kids would approach him with a problem. A cheap lesson. Every obstacle in life, every mistake made, every unexpected disappointment, and every instance of human suffering, was a cheap lesson. A cheap lesson he would always offer to pay for, as Carlos so loved his children that any price was cheap to him. As when one has faith that everything will be alright and things will get better, isn't everything a cheap lesson?

Carlos spoke about death in his later years, as he was not oblivious to the state of his health. And although he was classically stoic and rarely dispensed his concerns to the point of frustration, he did confide the solitary fear he had of death; Carlos was afraid only if his children would be alright without him. In Carlos' memory, his children will try to soothe that fear, and lovingly continue to be passionate and curious about the world around them, while remembering to laugh along the way. They will miss him dearly, and are comforted to know that many others do as well. May we thank God for his memory, and look forward to the day we may hear his words of wisdom again.

The family will receive friends and relatives for visitation from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home of Raleigh (831 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27604). Funeral Mass will be held at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral (715 Nazareth Street, Raleigh, NC 27606) with burial to follow in Historic Oakwood Cemetery (701 Oakwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27601).

Funeral arrangements are by Bryan-Lee Funeral Home of Raleigh. Online condolences may be made at www.bryan-leefuneralhome.com