This page is a tribute to my uncle, Russell Klingbeil. Although brain cancer took him from us on January 23, 2004, his spirit will live with us forever. To me, my uncle was like one of the larger than life personas that I pay tribute to on my site... He was a former marine who used to regale me with stories of his time in the Corps. He was an avid surfer and weightlifter. He was an accomplished designer and engineer of fire-sprinkler systems. He was very much into Harley Davison motorcycles. Remarkably talented at drafting, he was also very good at drawing, often things that would make me laugh and my aunt smack him on the arm. He was an outdoorsman who camped and was an afficionado of the rugged mountain-man lifestyle of yesteryear. He was a black-powder rifleman and an accomplished knife-maker. But above all other things, he was my favorite uncle. He and I used to talk about adventure classics like The Last of the Mohicans, White Fang, and others. He was one of the forces who shaped my bizarre sense of humor growing up, and we shared that humor in an almost psychic sense... all he would have to do sometimes was look at me and I knew exactly what he was thinking and what (or who) he was thinking it about. As a child, my whole year would revolve around visits with my uncle and aunt, and I would look forward to them as other children would look forward only to Christmas. I have many wonderful memories of my uncle Russell, and I will miss him for the rest of my life. His death removes from my world just a little bit of light... May God bless you and keep you, my friend and uncle.
