‘His love stayed’: Wichita man fatally injured at new water plant leaves lasting legacy

Manuel Esparza, the 55-year-old construction superintendent who died last week after being injured at the site of Wichita’s new water treatment plant, didn’t like to brag.

But his accomplishments and impact on Wichita were immense.

His legacy is particularly strong in Wichita’s Catholic community, which he helped grow for 30 years as a lay leader of the largely Spanish-speaking Cursillo movement, often associated with its three-day weekend retreats aimed at teaching laypeople how to live a Christian life.

Starting in 1992, Esparza was involved in organizing and leading at least 65 Cursillo retreats. It’s estimated that more than 3,000 Wichitans attended over that time.

Esparza worked at Utility Contractors Inc. (UCI) for 38 years, rising from laborer to estimator to project manager and finally to special project manager.

“Throughout his career, Manuel has touched about every part of Wichita’s water systems and other critical infrastructure, along with many other surrounding communities,” UCI President Jeff Grier said.

Esparza’s latest assignment was supposed to be a two-year post at the Northwest Water Treatment Facility, a $500 million replacement for the city of Wichita’s aging water plant.

“He came out to be a superintendent,” his wife, Xochitl Salazar-Esparza, said. “I told him, Manuel, you cannot be helping them, you cannot be down there (doing manual labor). You’re supposed to be on top, supervising, directing. He was like, ‘You cannot tell people what to do. You have to show them.’

“That was his life: you cannot tell people what to do,” she said. “Lead by example, always, on everything. And that’s exactly what he was doing when this happened.”

Xochitl said she does not know the full details surrounding her husband’s on-the-job injury, but she has no doubt that he was getting his hands dirty. “Something hit him. Something fell on him,” she said. “But that’s all for right now that we know.”

After the injury Thursday, Esparza was transported to a hospital where he later died.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has opened a fatality investigation into what led to Esparza’s injuries, an in-depth probe that could last up to six months.

U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson Rhonda Burke said Esparza was struck by a 36-inch diameter pipe that was being set by a spreader beam at the water plant site.

Father Jacob Carlin, spiritual director of the Cursillo movement in Wichita, said Esparza’s death has been felt heavily by the Catholic community. Esparza helped Spanish speakers connect with clergy.

“He was a bridge for so many of us who were trying to reach the Hispanic community,” he said. “He was bilingual. His English was almost perfect. And he was also holy, and just really close to God.”

In his hospital room after the injury, four priests showed up to pray for him.

“They dropped everything they were doing and went to go see him,” Carlin said. “That shows that not only did he have an impact on all of the laypeople of the church, but he impacted the leaders. To have four priests there is unheard of. That’s a big deal.”

Carlin said Esparza embodied the three core goals of the Cursillo movement: “Make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Christ.”

Esparza didn’t skip any steps, Carlin said.

“That’s why he has been such a pillar in the Cursillo movement and in the Catholic Church overall.”

Family man

The children of Mexican immigrants, Manuel and Xochitl met at Park Elementary School when they were 11 and 9 years old.

“We were friends right away, even though he was older than me” Xochitl said. “We kind of parted ways from there.”

As adults, the two reconnected through the Catholic church and through a nudge by a former Park Elementary paraeducator, Grace Juarez, who is now deceased.

“She told me what a great guy he was and he was such a hard worker — wonderful guy — and that I should probably go out with him,” Xochitl said.

“I knew he was the one from the moment he held my hand. It was right there by the river by Century II. We went down on our first date, and he held my hand and it was those strong, gentle hands that had tons of calluses on them. And I thought to myself, this man is a hard hard worker.”

“Just from holding that strong hand, I knew I was safe.”

Esparza used those hands to help build a better life for his family.

“He could fix anything,” Xochitl said. “Literally, anything. He remodeled this home. The tile, the wood floors, the driveway, the courtyard, the pool, electrical — we never called anyone. The refrigerator, the dishwasher — nobody ever had to be called because Manny knew how to fix it.”

The young couple married at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in September 1991 and had their first child, Ixy, in September 1994. Esparza attended Mass nearly every day, he enjoyed his job and he loved his family, his wife said.

In addition to his wife, he leaves daughters Ixy and Ariana Nayeli; sons Mickey and Diego; and more than 100 godchildren.

Earlier in his career, before his children were adults, he turned down a promotion at UCI that would have required him to travel, so he could be around for his children when they needed him.

“That’s what he was, you know: family and God,” Xochitl said.

Instead, UCI moved him out of the field and into the office as an estimator, where he had to adjust to a desk job for the first time in his life. He researched how to type faster and practiced at home.

“He’d wear his fancy clothes and go to the office, and it was hard,” his daughter Ariana Nayeli said. “He struggled, but he did it. No formal education, sitting in an office full of college educated men and women, master’s degrees on the wall.

“This man had never worked in front of a computer, and then all of a sudden, he’s bidding on million-dollar jobs, and getting these million-dollar jobs for this company with no formal education.”

Grier, UCI’s president, said Esparza’s time at the company was “incredibly impactful,” including passing his knowledge on to other employees.

“Manuel Esparza started his career with UCI at 18 years of age, and throughout his 38 years of service found success in every role that he had,” Grier said.

“At UCI he was a leader, a friend, and could solve any problem that came his way,” Grier said. “The constant smile on his face in the office or in the middle of a snowstorm was always present. His positive attitude was incredibly contagious.”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Esparza took a job as a superintendent, moving him out of the office and making him a field supervisor. He had recently started supervising at the Northwest Water Treatment Facility.

“This was an option,” Xochitl said. “They did not force him to go back into the field. They really needed his expertise, his experience.”

100 people in one house

The day after Esparza died, more than 100 friends and family members showed up to his home in the Benjamin Hills neighborhood of northwest Wichita.

“He’s gone, but his love stayed here,” his son Mickey said. “It didn’t leave with him.”

“And we can feel it in each other,” his daughter Ixy said. “I think that’s why people keep showing up. They just want that love that we feel.”

Esparza had a way of making people feel comfortable, his family said.

“Something he gave us, especially for me,” his son Mickey said, “was the feeling that any problem, no matter how big, I’ve never had doubt that it was going to be solved because he gave to me that hope that everything’s always going to be OK.”

“We can’t complain,” Xochitl said. “We had 30 years. He gave us in those 30 years the love of a thousand lifetimes.”

The night before he died, Esparza was preparing to give a speech at an upcoming Cursillo retreat on how to prepare for life after death.

“He was really trying to highlight the simplicity of a relationship with Christ, and how people just don’t get that it’s as easy as talking to your friends here on Earth,” Mickey said. “To be a friend of Christ is the same to be a friend of your brother, a friend of your sister, a friend of anybody. It’s the same thing.”

Esparza’s funeral mass will be at 10 a.m. on Friday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 430 N. Broadway, in downtown Wichita. It will also be livestreamed on the church’s Facebook page and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita’s YouTube channel.

“He didn’t waste a second of his life,” his daughter, Ariana Nayeli, said. “Life’s going to be hard not having him physically here. We want him here, and this is horrible and tragic, but he left us with everything we need because of that love. Everything we need, we have it. That love gave us everything we need.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 4:53 AM.