Passing of a Legend

He founded the Rapid City Propbusters along with a couple of his fellow flyers over fifty years ago. I never knew the other founding fathers but I did come to know Lowell over the past 35 years or so. He was a CL flyer when the club was first started but he and some of his compatriots jumped into the RC scene very early on. Lowell loved to regale one and all of the adventures and misadventures they experienced in those formative RC years. I missed out on that era of the hobby but I never tired of hearing about the trials and tribulations suffered by those pioneers.

I first met Lowell in the late 1970’s. By that time he was an accomplished pattern flyer with quite a few years of successful competition behind him. The pattern planes of that era were sleek, fast and designed for large and graceful maneuvers and few in this area could handle such a plane as well as Lowell. The times changed. The planes changed. Our flying location changed. Lowell remained dedicated to our club even as his health began to slowly deteriorate.

He was accorded Life Member status a couple of years ago and that seemed to mean more to him than anything else we could have done for him.

A legend has now passed. We wish the best to Adeline and the rest of Lowell’s family. Arlene and I are hoping that Adeline will be able to grace us with her presence at the annual Promised Land BBQ’s for many years to come. I know Lowell will be there in spirit. He will be missed, by all of us.