Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Said goodbye to a great friend today

I'm typing this from Wasilla, AK where I spent the day saying farewell to a mentor and friend that passed away last week.

He was my college roommate's father, and the first time I met him some 18 years ago it was like a real-life John Wayne had walked into our apartment.

He had a flat-top haircut until the day he died, ALWAYS wore Pendleton button-up shirts, liked Buweiser beer and Kenworth trucks with an equal and fervent passion.

He spent four years in the USMC, and was as much a well-mannered gentleman as he was a badazz. He once told me wife that she, "Kept a fine house". Coming from anyone else it might have sounded sexist or dated,...coming from John it was high praise and made her giggle with delight.

At 60 years of age he shot a grizzly bear that squared 9/12 feet and BARELY missed the all-time record book. He shot that bear without the aid of a guide on a fly-in/drop off trip in the interior of Alaske (his home state). He also packed the hide on that brute all by himself. He was 62 years old when he shot his last Dall sheep on a do-it-yourself trip. This man was tougher than a two dollar steak.

Every rifle he owned (all pre-64 Winchesters) were wood and blued, because he "wanted something pretty to look at while he waited for a bear or sheep to wander by".

He was cool without knowing it, and would have thought it was foolish I posted this thread.

My heart is broken tonight and I'm crying like a baby while I write this in the lobby of the Best Western. I don't give a chit because the world is without a damn fine man in his absence and he is worthy of every single tear.

If this message finds it's way to you my friend, thanks for all the sage advice and the many good times.

Condolences