List of memories of my uncle

My earliest memory of my uncle was playing ‘airplane’ in the front yard of Grandma and Grandpa’s house

As a kid, I remember how much he loved us (nephew #1!). He’d take us out to:

• Busch Gardens
• Historical Sites
• Car shows
• Go Kart
• Skiing
• Swimming at his pool
• Shooting range
• Skiing (wearing gear on the ski slope … pro)
• Air Shows
• Embarassing Jean-Claude Van Damme picture pose

Uncle Gene was always there

• Church, then Waffle n Things or another breakfast place
• Coming over to dinner with scrubs or gym clothes, famished (Are you going to eat that?)
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Birthdays (provided the pesos for my treasure hunt birthday)
• Karate Lessons
• Write letters for graduation, confirmation (he was my confirmation sponsor)

Uncle Gene the wise: could get really immersed in his ideas

• Grilling out and flames of the grill out of control, oblivious. (He ended up warping the condo siding)
• On hikes to Old Rag, inevitably Uncle Gene drops back to chat with you: Intelligent Design, the de-valuatization of the US dollar, a godless society (if you don’t answer to god, who do you answer to?), finding live tissue in a fossilize dinosaur remains
• Uncle Gene’s infamous hanging question (I’d always get it wrong, answering “Yes”, but then “No!, but let me explain why, Robbie”)

He took care of people

• Asthma medicine
• Sharing via email distributions, since the day the internet was created it seemed, until his passing
• Les Paul … life ling guitarist
• Weightset … fitness minded
• Emergency Prep bag
• Swiss army knives
• Always handing out cash
• Truck shopping: Toyota, Bronco II … enguinity
• Always helping mom and aunt carla

Big appetite/Favorite eats

• Old country buffer and Golden Corral
• Why not pizza

Uncle Gene the Wise

• Get restaurant biz out of your system
• Believe in yourself
• Attitude is everything
• Lead by Example
• Experience is the best teacher…sometimes not so great being taught though
• Golden Rule, yes, but would about the Platinun rule?

Towards the end of high school, as a punk teenager, i ran with a bad crowd for a bit. We still spent time together and he didn’t give up on me

Now I owe a large part of who I am to Uncle Gene: attitude, job, family, god, guitar

Uncle Gene showed me what it meant to lead by example, to be strong, kind, generous, and full of faith.

Uncle #1

Love, Robbie