Mike Riopel Memorial Thread

[RRRiopel-Cali]

I also want to thank all of you here for posting such great pictures and stories. It's comforting to learn about some of the "good stuff" you got to do with him.

Ren

 

[DandyDon]

I also want to thank all of you here for posting such great pictures and stories. It's comforting to learn about some of the "good stuff" you got to do with him.

Ren

Hello Rione,

I received your Private Message about your request and replied the best that I could, copied to a Moderator who has been following the Accidents thread, requesting assistance. It's late in Florida already, but she is in Australia where it's early afternoon - so I hope she will see the PM and have time to assist.

Please do contact me again if I may help here or in some other way...

 

[ScubaTexan]

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend, Richie. My thoughts and prayers are with you and his family and friends.

 

[RRRiopel-Cali]

I hope you dont mind me replying on the board..I just wanted to share some photos. Thank you so very much. Your compassion is greatly appreciated. I just got off the phone with my nephew, Jesse Riopel, Mikes firstborn. Like his dad Jess was a fighter and very driven. He was born about 3 months too early weighing not more than a few pounds. He was in an incubator being kept alive by machines. His chance of survival looked grim. If you saw him now you would never believe that this young man standing 6 foot 3 pushing 200 (& it aint fat) was a "premie". Jess has a beautiful wife and two precious children. Sadly, this summer was to be the year Mike made his way to California to meet them and be reunited with all of us Riopels on this coastline. Joey is Mikes 2nd son and also resides here in Cali. If you can believe this..he is taller than Jess! Both are carbon copies of Michael Lynn. And know that they didnt inherrit their height from our dad, who stands maybe 5"4. As fate would have it, our father just returned home after having a quadruple bypass. The last time I spoke to my brother he was calling to ask I hadn't called to updated him on Dads status yet. He was on the way out of town. He was all jazzed about getting a run (he was a truck driver) out that way because it had been so long since he'd been in those waters. I'm thankful that I got to have that conversation with Mike. It was if he almost felt guilty for being so excited when things were blah here. One of the many accomplishments Mike achieved was making sure that the Riopel name was carried on. The man produced nothing but BOYS! A fact he is openly proud of. Although his manliness soon faded when he married Lisa and was won-over by her (their) two girls. At least I know that he spent his last years married to a woman whom he was deeply in love with and he was happy. At the same time, my heart aches for her loss. It is a bad situation all the way around and all we can do is cherish the times we did have with Michael. I know when I look back and remember my brother, it always makes my heart smile. I am posting some pictures of the family to share w/ his friends here. Although I'd love to brag about his grandbabies, I want to ask Erin and Jessie for their permission before posting them. Again..THANK YOU...you helped us answer some of the many questions racing through our minds at this tragic time.

Rione Riopel-Landgraf

 

[almitywife]

thankyou Rione for putting the man and his family to a name...... right now im in tears at your loss.

im glad you have good memories to hold on to.

 

[joestilley]

Thanks for posting those pictures Clay, Those were several that I was going to put on here but have some problems posting them. You and Richie have put most of the ones on I wanted to.

Thanks Joe

 

[Capt Gary]

My deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Mike.

No words can ease the loss, but as long as we remember our loved ones they will always be with us.

 

[mempilot]

To all of Mike's family and friends,

My deepest sympathies and condolences over your loss.

 

[jax_Lady2002]

Mike was my instructor for my Advanced Certification a couple years ago and a few months ago my Nitrox certification class. He worked me in just in time for my Bonaire trip.

He was the most patient man and a great instructor. I loved his deep, calm voice and his boisterous laugh; he was like a big teddy bear. You could tell he loved teaching diving and seeing the amazement in new students when they were successful. I remember one dive, we were at Blue Grotto and he brought his scooter for us to play with. We had never used anything like it and had such fun. He loved his dive toys.

On our AOW deep dive trip we had a high maintenance student and he had to answer the same questions over and over again slowly and calmly. The rest of us got impatient with the person and their delaying us, but he didn't. He had so many student on that trip he had to bring some divermaster friends to help out. Ironically, he was the one who always did a double check to make sure our air was on right before we did our giant stride off the boat. I can still hear him saying dive, dive, dive.

The pictures of Mike posted here are greatly appreciated. I will always be thankful for the things he taught me and will have my memories of him to keep him alive in spirit.

Linda Daley

 

[Wendym]

Mike was a warm and loving man. I find comfort in knowing he left this world doing what he has loved his whole life. I can’t help but think of things I never would have learned, seen or done without our time together:

I never would have saw the Pink Floyd Lazarium light show in SF.
My first concert would not have been the Tubes.
I would have never learned to drive a stick shift, listening to Black Sabbath in surround sound on the hills of SF.
My senior trip would not have been 6 weeks in an 18 wheeler traveling across the country.
I wouldn’t know where Klute Texas is or that the entire contents of the Burger King built there from tile to toilets fit into one 40 ft. trailer.
I would have never tasted freshly caught and cooked abalone.
I would never have saw a baby great white from an aluminum fishing boat while his cousin and him were in the water, diving in Monterey.
I would have never learned to crab and that the best bait for crabbing is dead fish heads in a plastic bag, left out in the sun all day.
I wouldn’t have learned to drive an 18 wheeler and I wouldn’t have gotten my snow and ice experience on the great divide or learned to drive in the tule fog on I – 5.
I would have never been part of some of the greatest CBing truck convoys during the 70s.
I never would have lived in Moab, Utah, however brief, it was an adventure.

There are so many things I never would have done if I hadn’t known Mike. The most important, our two son’s Jesse and Joe and our grandchildren, Jesse Jr. and Lillian Rose.

My sincerest sympathy goes out to Lisa and the rest of Mike’s family.

To Mike, the Transtar – we’ll be 10-10 ‘til we do it again. This is from the Sunbird who is going 10-7, over and out.