[ORRando] Steve Gitchell

[Michael Mann]

I'm shocked and very sorry to read this. Steve and I shared the better part of my first 200K a few years ago - I remember a great chat between gasping breaths going over the hill and bombing down into Timber. I spent a lot of that ride watching and lusting over that orange Ira Ryan he was riding. Seems like I ran into him about once a month or so - often riding around Mount Tabor when I was up there running, but also just unexpectedly all over Portland. Always smiling.

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 18, 2013, at 4:44 PM, Theo Elliot Roffe <theoelliot at gmail.com> wrote:

> It saddens me to share this news, but fellow Oregon Randonneur Steve Gitchell died this week.  He was 64.
> 
> I am grateful to have known Steve, to have had the chance to ride with him (he was RUSA 5099), to see him unexpectedly around town (he was always riding one of his bikes around Portland), and for the talks we had.
> 
> We both showed up, a few years ago, at a garage sale out of Ira Ryan's frame building shop and spent several hours talking; about his tours in Vietnam, about bicycling, about love and relationships, about work, and life, and change.
> 
> On the MAX, heading home from a populaire this past spring, he tried to convince me to go into the French Foreign Legion.  I wasn't sure then, and now I'll never know, if he was kidding, or serious.  He might have been serious...
> 
> Another time, working with the Community Cycling Center's Bike Camp this summer, Steve happened upon me and my group of campers.  He rode along with us, keeping pace with a young girl who had only recently started riding bikes, smiling, and helping us keep an eye on traffic and get through busy intersections.
> 
> He was usually smiling (except for the time he told me that he was going to kill me for the headwind on a ride I organized - he said I'd never see it coming, but I suppose I can let my guard down now), always dapper, and clearly loved riding his bike.
> 
> Here's a link to some pictures I took of Steve and one of his bikes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoelliot/sets/72157632557062184/
> 
> And to an Oregon Herald article about his death: http://www.oregonherald.com/oregon/local.cfm?id=2877&Business-News=Nweberg-man-found-dead-on-his-living-room-floor.htm
> 
> -Theo Roffe
> Portland, OR
> 
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