Alex M. Duran (AKA Narud)

On February 13th, 2023, our brother, Alex Mark Duran, committed suicide at age 52 in a Costa Mesa, CA hotel. The Duran family is asking relatives, friends and the public for help with his funeral plot, cremation and grave marker due to his untimely death.

A memorial ceremony will be held from 10am-12pm April 22nd, 2023, at

The Avenue Church in the Fellowship Hall Room

8223 California Ave, Riverside, CA 92504

One of his favorite Dominican meals will be served.

Note: The Fellowship Hall Room was chosen with the specific purpose of inclusion of all religions. The family understands that some religions have strict rules about their believers or parishioners entering the sanctuary or chapel of any other church other than their own. So please come and remember my brother, Alex M. Duran, with a clear conscious.

Alex wished to be cremated and buried with our mom at Harbor Lawn-Mt. Olive Memorial Park & Mortuary

1625 Gisler Ave, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

Note: Graveside inurnment is scheduled for 2:00 pm on April 22nd, 2023. Although we are still short by $1800 of money needed to pay off the contract by April 19th, 2023, for the inurnment site rights for Alex to be buried with Mom, the show must go on. I will keep the GoFundMe page open until the goal is achieved.

He is preceded in death by our mother, Florinda Duran, who died on March 12th, 1985. Our father, Jeury Duran, is 78 and still living in San Dimas, CA. Our stepsister, Jessica, and stepmother, Angeles, also live in San Dimas and take good care of Dad.

Alex joined our family on March 18th, 1970, in Tarrytown, New York after being made in Ossining, NY with imported parts; some assembly required (We still laughed about how we became people in this awesome country). I still remember the day we brought my little brother home. Our house had over 30 icy steps and approximately 200 hundred feet of icy walkway to the porch door which was super treacherous for our delicate mom. My brother was a super special baby because our dad had to convince our mother and the doctor to bless another pregnancy due to our mother’s heart defect. Our mother barely survived the labor with Alex. I believe our mom’s strength, intelligence and perseverance and our father’s quality work ethic transferred to my little brother when he was born.

Alex proved to be a tough little kid. He was a born daredevil. Nothing was too tough for him, not even the virtually indestructible Tonka toys which were made of steel, not plastic. When he played, he played hard which would later payoff for him. We would ride our Big Wheels until the plastic wheels were worn through. He also had an incredible mind. Who remembers our parents’ weekly subscriptions to TV Guide? Alex could read the entire TV Guide booklet and recall the entire TV lineup which included the basic channels 2 thru 13 and a few UHF channels like PBS. He knew the title, the 5-star rating, the channel, and the day and time for all the shows for the whole week. I know this because I would spot-test him just to check. He would have made an awesome cross-examination trial attorney with his amazing gift. He would later use his total recall skill at various places in his career which I will explain later.

Alex was an unpaid professional comedian because he never got paid for all his funny conversations and witty jokes. I used to beg him to go to The Improv or The Icehouse to perform on stage. Please let us know if any of you ever stumped him with a comeback. In all our years, I only stumped him once. He was so upset. Later all I had to say was “Your 10 seconds are up” and he knew to what I was referring.

Alex (AKA Narud) graduated from Corona Sr. High School in 1988 with a letter in Football. Although our father preferred soccer which Alex played when he was 8 years old, Alex played football on the offensive line as a right guard. While our dad was out working his butt off to make ends meet, I supported Alex’s choice of sports by attending every high school football game he ever played no matter where it was including way out in Palm Springs after work on a Friday night. He enjoyed the physical and mental discipline so much that he earned his place on the Half Ton Club within the Power Lifting group which is where high school athletes lift a combined total weight of over 1000 pounds in the following three lifts: Squat, Bench Press, and Clean(AKA Dead Lift).

After high school, he coached football at Corona Sr. High School for a short time then moved on to security jobs where he met his soon-to-be ex-wife. While stationed at Montgomery Ward’s High Dollar Warehouse(AKA Monkey Wards) in Stanton, CA, he became a lead security officer and sometimes acted as an assistant security supervisor. He earned such an awesome reputation while doing an excellent job in loss prevention that he was headhunted by a firm that asked him to relocate to Memphis, TN to become a security manager. He denied the offer because he valued family and friendship over money. He loved helping people too. If he couldn’t help someone, he would try to arrange for someone else to help in the situation.

In the late 1990s, Alex answered a job posting for a concrete laborer position. I’ll never forget his excitement when he called me to tell me that he learned about the concrete pumping services provided by his employer. He accused our dad and me of keeping that line of work a secret. We would still laugh about the secret job as of late. He put his wonderful mind to work and truly mastered the art of laying concrete with a trailered pump. He loved what he was doing so much that he asked Dad for financial help so he could purchase a used T/A trailered pump which he paid back. Alex, Dad and I worked together to restore T/A Serial #85 which we painted in bumble bee colors. Alex created his company, Duran’s Jedi Pumping, with the slogan, “A pump company not so far, far away.” He proclaimed himself the #2 pumper in the greater Los Angeles area. People would ask why he was #2. He would humbly answer that the #1 guy was extra special because his truck was lowered and sported an air-brushed paint job and he was too picky about getting his equipment dirty. Alex would then tell people that he did not care to be that special pumper guy at a construction site; however, he became special in another way. His mind was so powerful, he became the go-to guy to help someone drop a job which he could do in less than five minutes. When a pumper gets into trouble, other available pumpers are called to help cover the job. Alex had collected hundreds of pumping contacts in his Nextel for which he memorized all their service areas. Troubled pumpers would reach out to him to make the connection with an available pumper. The concrete mix becomes perishable once water is added, so equipment staging and punctuality are a requirement. The last evidence of pumping concrete was in December 2017 for So Cal Concrete. So if I have his years straight, he pumped and dispatched concrete for approximately 20 years.

Alex soon gained the reputation of being one of the best concrete pump operators in the region. Nobody could lay concrete like Alex. He had an eye so accurate that after pumping the patio, sidewalks, and driveway, the concrete finishing crew would only have to move one shovel of concrete in the end. The finishers could do their work in just a little over half the time. Although met with scientific resistance, Alex was also known to call concrete formulators to adjust their mixing recipes to be more pump friendly and still attain the hardness specifications that were required for specific concrete jobs. He knew concrete so well he could judge the truck mix and tell the driver how much water to add before the job would start. Concrete pumping took a major toll on his body. Although he was a recovered alcoholic, he suffered from occasional drug use due to severe back pain and sciatica during the last 15 years of his life.

He loved Star Wars so much that he wore his Star Wars shirts when he died. Our dad’s sister, Tia Belkys, took us to see Star Wars in 1977 at an old performing arts theatre in New Rochelle, NY (Our family moved from New York to California in late 1979). He learned every detail of the characters and their place in the Star Wars storyline. He attended Comic Con at least once just to buy some Star Wars or Mandalorian collectibles. He joined the Master Replicas Collectors Society and invested in some light sabers and action figures during the mid-2000s when money was good during the Southern California construction boom. He visited Star Trek exhibits also. He was a real Sci-Fi fan. Our dad and he worked together in our dad’s cabinet shop to build a beautiful living room display table that included metal laminate and polished stainless steel inlays which he polished and designed himself.

During the 2000s, he traveled to see Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks games with his friends. He attended several hockey games which is a sport we never talked about, nor did I know he liked.

In 2012, he entered the Salvation Army’s recovery program in Perris, CA. He was pleased with his recovery from alcoholism. Although he strongly disliked not working hard while in recovery, he graduated from the Salvation Army Recovery Program in February 2013.

In February 2019, he bought a car where he lived as a part-time homeless person. We called it part-time because while he was still working diligently as a food delivery driver, he would give himself breaks by checking into a motel for two to three days per week; however, during the recent $7 per gallon gas price hike, he could no longer afford to give himself a break. He communicated his frustration this past November during our last phone conversation. After that, we just texted.

On February 11th, 2023, he checked into a hotel in Costa Mesa for what would become his last Superbowl weekend. Alex loved football.

Announcement and fundraiser prepared by Alex’s “Big Brother”, David J. Duran.

Thanks to Liz Coronado and Lisa Marazzi for helping with editing and formatting, especially after I uploaded my Little Brother's story to GoFundMe.

Many thanks to Lupe Gamez(Rice and Dominican Beans), Scott Turner(Sound and Montage), and Debbie Shanahan(Program).

P.S. Sangop was his beloved Siamese kitty and companion when he lived in his Placentia, CA apartment during his pumping years. I do not know which one of his friends has the kitty now; however, he left a note indicating that she is still alive and well taken care of. You may view pictures of Sangop with Alex on his Facebook page.