The passing of Darren Bentz

Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming & Montana, also Rocky Mountain and Heart of America Chapters of Tearjerkers

The passing of Darren Bentz

Postby GeoDrop » Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:42 pm

As many of you may know, Darren was instrumental in bringing together teardrop owners/builders here in the Midwest, ultimately forming a group known as KAMO (Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri & Oklahoma). He was an original organizer of the Crawford State Park event each year, which at it's peak had 20-30 teardrops in attendance. Sadly, Darren recently passed away. I've pasted in his obituary below. Darren will always be remembered by those of who had the pleasure of knowing him and calling him a friend. The annual Crawford event will continue and we'll toast each year in honor of him.

-------------------------
Darren Scott Bentz was born on March 2, 1962 in Parsons, Kansas and passed away on March 3, 2016. He was diagnosed on December 2, 2015 with gliobastoma.
He is survived by his Mother, Sharon Bentz of Shawnee; his Father, Jon Bentz of Leawood; Sister, Kimberly Barron of Mound City and Daughter, Ashley Bentz of Wichita. Darren has four grandchildren, Ethan, Parker, Jonas and Maddox. He has two Uncles in Parsons-David and Larry Blaich and an Aunt-Sandra Frischenmeyer of Wichita.
Darren was a member of the Coleman Collectors Club and has a large collection of Coleman globes, lanterns, camp stove and other collectibles. There isn't anything he couldn't tell you about globes and lanterns and loved refurbishing his finds for his collection. He also etched the globes every year for the Coleman Convention and he enjoyed finding "birthday" lanterns for his friends based on the dates on the bottom of the lanterns.
Darren was an IT Computer Tech and spent endless hours on his computer updating his website and drawing ideas for etching and sandblasting his Coleman globes. The first thing he did each day was to turn on his compuer and the last thing at night he was on his computer.
He handcrafted his own teardrop trailer and enjoyed camping with his many friends in the KAMO Camping Group. He was called the "heart and soul" of the organization and hosted a campout every September at the Crawford County State Park in Farlington, Kansas. He took nature walks there and loved to spend time around the fire pit spinning yarns about his Coleman collection, camping and playing with his friends dogs. These campouts were the highlight of his year.
There was a get-together with his friends from the KAMO friends and family on January 24th at Chicken Annie's(his favorite restaurant) in Pittsburg, Kansas and then a drive through the campground at Crawford Park. He had a very special day with his friends and relatives.
Darren also enjoyed astronomy and was always outside to watch every celestrial event. He also enjoyed watching the Chemtrails.
Darren spent a lot of time with the family dogs, Bart and Maxine. His favorite dog, Magnolia, passed away in 2012. He never walked past the dogs without saying "hi, kids" and petting them and loved to play ball with them.
He will be sadly missed by everyone who knew what a special person Darren was.
----------------------------
Matthew (& Sandi)
The GeoDrop
User avatar
GeoDrop
Donating Member
 
Posts: 243
Images: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:45 pm
Location: Northeast Kansas

Re: The passing of Darren Bentz

Postby Mukilteo » Sun May 22, 2016 8:25 pm

I haven't been on the Coleman forum for a while now.
Sorry to hear this. :(
I have two of his custom globes and I sold him a rare 200A sized globe with a match hole.
Eric
Mukilteo
Donating Member
 
Posts: 1355
Images: 18
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:14 am


Return to North Central

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests