First of all, my deepest condolences to Kevin's family.
It's been almost a week since we learned of Kevin's passing and I have not had a single waking hour go by without some thought or memory of my friend. Sleep has been uneven and sporadic at best. This is a tough time. I know I'm not alone in my feelings, but somehow, I feel very alone today.
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@inkpot , it has taken me some time to collect my thoughts enough to post some of them here. Many of Kevin's friends are my friends too and good people who volunteer to work together on the Tonto National Forest with TRAL. Many of his friends are Toyota enthusiasts and 4-wheelers. I never tried to take much of his time, as I knew there were so many people that relied on Kevin for his sage advice. I could always count on Kevin and of course John taking time as much as needed, whenever I needed it. I could also count on Kevin to tell me if something wasn't needed. "Just wheel it!", he would say. His voice echos in my mind as I write this. The mass outpouring of feelings here on Mud is testimony to the way he lived and the affect he had on people.
Kevin was tall and slim and perfectly suited to working on lifted land cruisers. When Kevin walked, it was reminiscent of the way a giraffe moves, with a slow, careful and deliberate grace. When Kevin touched anything he demanded that it work perfectly. He did beautiful work -
@DSRTRDR Claudia's FJ40, come to mind. Though he worked with a crippled hand, Kevin was a skilled fabricator. We are going to miss his sentinel announcement for a fixed repair - "Perfect!". Many of the great ideas and things he has invented have been commercially exploited by other people here on Mud. He could have exploited his forum celebrity too - brought great products to market and gotten rich off the Mud community. He didn't do that. He wasn't about having all the cool stuff. He didn't need it. Kevin was cool without all the attachments. Kevin died without a lot of money, but he was rich in friends, and we all are richer for having known him.
After becoming disillusioned with 4WD club politics, Kevin turned away from his president's position at Copper State Cruisers and turned his attention to TRAL, where he was instrumental in building the community of volunteers - including a very large Land Cruiser membership. He didn't want to be the CSC club president, it was handed to him. In TRAL, he took no official title, but he was involved in everything. Over the years, he brought hundreds of people into TRAL. He never liked being the leader, he really preferred to back seat drive or to be the Spotter. I think that's what gave him such a unique objective way of looking at things.
Why did Kevin love TRAL so much? Historically, the OHV community and land management agencies like the Forest Service and BLM have been at odds with one another - OHV users screaming at FS and BLM about road closures, and cash-strapped land agencies complaining that they don't have resources to address the problems. This approach has yielded very little traction. Kevin saw what Rich Smith was doing at TRAL and realized that whining wasn't ever going to work, and the only thing that would really work is showing the land agencies how much people cared and to be willing to put in the hours to make the forest a better place for us all. THIS WORKS MUDDERS!!! The FS welcomes TRAL's contributions, making maps, installing information kiosks, marking and repairing trails and telling them what is going on in their forest. By doing this, we keep more trails open and the forest is a better, more harmonious place to be. This and many more things are what Kevin was about.
We can honor his legacy every time we are off-road enjoying public land, be courteous to others, to take the time to pick up a little trash, and leave the place a little cleaner than we found it.
If you really want to honor Kevin, ask your local land managers how you can GET INVOLVED help them keep trails clean, safe and open, and get/stay involved in your local community.
This one really hurts!
I'm going to miss you Kevin - my sage, my spotter, my friend.
--Trent
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