Brandon Joseph Mcdermott

Brandon was born on February 24th, 1997, in Redondo Beach, California at South Bay Medical Center. The same hospital where his mother worked as an RN in Labor and Delivery and his father worked as a Respiratory Therapist in the NICU. He was a happy easy-going boy that was always curious and full of life. His “happy place” (according to Brandon) was his grandma’s house in Canyon Lake. It was here at the age of three that his grandma taught him to fish.

Brandon attended Beryl Elementary School where he learned to play the trumpet and was selected to be in the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Program. Brandon met some of his best friends in these early years. He fell in love with the Lakers & The Dodgers and sports in general. His favorite player of all time was Kobe Bryant. He played little league baseball, YMCA Basketball, and AYSO soccer. He also had a love for all board sports, skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, and wakeboarding.

Brandon continued his education at Perris Middle School. It was here that his love for the jazz trumpet continued while he played in the middle school band. He also attended classes in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) program at El Camino College where his zeal for technology & computers grew. His love for sports and basketball continued as he played for the Perris Panthers basketball team. It was during these years he studied the art of Tae Kwon Do under Master Lee in Hermosa Beach. Brandon reached the high honor of 1st-degree Black belt by the age of 13.

Brandon was a diligent student and took his academics seriously at Redondo Union High School. He continued to excel in math and sciences and challenged himself with AP (advanced placement) classes. It was in high school that Brandon’s passion for the trumpet flourished while playing in the RUHS Jazz Band. At 6ft 1” Brandon traded in his basketball shoes for Lacrosse. He played midfielder and defender on the RUHS Lacrosse team with his childhood best friends. In 1997 Brandon Graduated with honors and was elated when he was accepted to CSULB.

Brandon loved the dorm life at Long Beach State. He traveled the campus by skateboard and majored in Computer Science. He also joined the fraternity life and brotherhood of Theta Chi. For his extracurricular activities, Brandon joined the CSULB snowboarding team. He left the familiar small local mountains and learned to shred the big ones known as Mammoth and Lake Tahoe. Brandon worked during college at various internships. He also taught programming at Code Ninja and worked as a Computer Lab Technician at the local Long Beach elementary school. Due to the COVID pandemic, Brandon’s last few years at CSULB were online. He graduated in 2021 with his bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering.

After College Brandon was so fortunate to accept a job at EvolveNxt as a junior developer. He moved to Gardena, got his first apartment, and continued to work remotely from home. His boss, Sundar, recently took Brandon and all his co-workers to Cancun. He went deep-sea fishing for the first time and reeled in a huge Barracuda. It was the highlight of his year. Brandon had a passion for collecting sports memorabilia and all things Kobe. Brandon was able to see one of Kobe’s last games before he retired and was devastated by his death in 2020. Brandon continued to love and enjoy snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, Fantasy football, playing pool, taking care of his bearded dragon “Mohave” and especially fishing and wakeboarding at his grandma’s.

Brandon is survived by his brother Kyle McDermott, his father Kevin McDermott, his mother Linda McDermott and his two grandmothers Darlene Cortez and Patricia McDermott.