‘Deeply missed’: Wichita optometrist who died on kayak trip led full life

Hector G. Rios was a man of many interests, but his favorite was watching his children run, according to his obituary.

The 57-year-old Wichita optometrist’s body was found May 8 under some brush along the bank of the Mulberry River in Arkansas. He had been missing since May 3 after going kayaking with a group of people. The cause of his death was pending an autopsy, an official said the day after he was found. A celebration of life is planned for Monday, his obituary says.

All three of Rios’ children have run competitively and two are on long distance teams in college: one at Kansas State University and the other at the University of Texas. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Colberg, who he married in 1990; his children, Madison, Trey and Alexa; his parents; brother; two sisters; and other family members.

Like his children, Rios was an avid runner, going 35 to 50 miles a week, according to a bio about him on his company’s website. His sister, Raquel Rios-Reed, held the state’s fastest woman’s marathon time after setting it in the 2014 Prairie Fire Marathon until it was broken during that race in 2020.

Rios had been an optometrist for 31 years with practices in Wichita and Colwich.

Thirty-five of the 36 reviews left on Google for Hector Rios Optometry were five stars. People often left comments about his kindness and knowledge in the field. One person wrote about Rios and his crew helping him in a “minor emergency” after getting something in their eye.

“I explained my situation and the receptionist got me in 30 minutes later,” Logan wrote. “Dr. Hector Rios is great. You can tell he really loves what he does, and is very kind, funny, and informative. The receptionist is also very welcoming. He was able to extract the foreign object and get my eye fixed up in a matter of 15 minutes. An overall great experience, I would recommend this practice to anyone.”

Outside of work, he also enjoyed kayaking, cycling, tending to his salt and fresh-water aquariums and woodworking. He started micro brewing in 1995 but eventually gave that up for woodworking after the dust from that hobby got into a couple batches of his homemade beer, he said in a 2022 interview with Careers Over Beers Podcast, which talks with Kansas professionals about their career while having a drink.

“I had to decide between micro brewing or woodworking and I am thinking, I can always buy beer,” he said on the podcast.

In college, Rios was a two-time National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-American while running on the cross country and track teams at Southwestern College, according to a bio on Trey Rios’ athlete page at the University of Texas.

Hector Rios, on the podcast, said he had an interest in biology and then the medical field at a young age. He considered being a veterinarian before his family had to have a cat put down his sophomore year of high school.

“And I thought, I don’t know if I could deal with that on a semi regular, don’t get me wrong you are healing, you are helping people out, but you are still dealing with death,” he said. “And I always seemed to enjoy going to my optometrist’s office for visits … It’s come out to be a great decision for me.”

Tracy Pribbenow, the mayor of Bentley, eight miles north of Colwich, wrote this about Rios on Facebook: “He was not just a physician, but a friend, and served our family’s eye health for over 20 years. What a great loss to our area!”

Someone commented on the post that he was their doctor too.

“He will be deeply missed,” the person wrote. “Always made us laugh.”