SAM HESSE died Sun­day, April 29, 2007, in Hous­ton, Texas, at the age of 23. With the ex­cep­tion of his col­lege years in Eng­land, Sam lived in Hous­ton. He was born in Hous­ton on Septem­ber 13, 1983, to Stephen and Gretchen (Steib) Hesse. He com­plet­ed his pri­ma­ry ed­u­ca­tion and his sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion at St. Thomas' Epis­co­pal School, the school from which he grad­u­at­ed in May 2002. By the end of his ju­nior year, Sam had de­vel­oped an in­tense in­ter­est in the art of film and cin­e­ma. Sam's in­ter­est in­flu­enced his de­ci­sion to ap­ply for ad­mis­sion to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kent in Can­ter­bury, Eng­land, a school renowned for its Film Stud­ies De­part­ment. Sam's years in Can­ter­bury proved to be some of the most chal­leng­ing and hap­pi­est times of his life. Sam ex­celled aca­dem­i­cal­ly and, in 2005, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kent award­ed him a Bach­e­lor of Arts with Hon­ours in Film Stud­ies. Af­ter grad­u­a­tion, Sam re­turned to Hous­ton to in­volve him­self in di­verse works and pro­jects, one of which was a cam­paign doc­u­men­tary about the Texas 2006 gu­ber­na­to­ri­al elec­tion. That pro­ject al­lowed Sam not on­ly to trav­el with and film one of the can­di­dates for Gov­er­nor of Texas but al­so to meet and lis­ten to peo­ple from all across Texas. Sam loved sports, es­pe­cial­ly soc­cer, and he an­tic­i­pat­ed the time he would have Dy­namo sea­son tick­ets. He said more than once that be­ing a sports writ­er was one of his "dream jobs." Sam was jus­ti­fi­ably sat­is­fied with the past, mild­ly dis­sat­is­fied with the pre­sent, and con­fi­dent­ly op­ti­mistic about the fu­ture. He proved that he could ac­com­plish what­ev­er he set his mind to do, in his own "Sam-​I-​Am" style. His great sense of hu­mor and keen, but nev­er un­kind, wit drew oth­ers to him. Sam cul­ti­vat­ed and en­joyed the ex­pe­ri­ence of life and in­spired oth­ers to do the same. His fam­i­ly and friends are pro­found­ly thank­ful for the too-​brief time Sam shared with them. Sam was pre­ced­ed in death by his pa­ter­nal grand­fa­ther, Sam D. Hesse of San An­ge­lo, TX and by his un­cle, Curt F. Steib, Jr. of San An­ge­lo. Sam is sur­vived by his par­ents, Stephen and Gretchen Hesse; his broth­er and best friend, Curt C. Hesse; aunt and un­cle, Kathy and George Janssen; aunt and un­cle, Car­ol and Bob But­ner; un­cle and aunt, Clint and Mon­i­ca Steib of Round Rock; and aunt and un­cle Karen and Mark Smith of Swe­den. He is al­so sur­vived by his pa­ter­nal grand­moth­er, Mrs. Sam D. (Bar­bara) Hesse of San An­ge­lo, and his ma­ter­nal grand­par­ents, Judge and Mrs. Curt F. Steib of San An­ge­lo.