Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Rest In Peace › Deral “TrimbleMan” Paulk has passed away
So sorry to hear that news. Life is so funny, Deral did so much good for his buddy suffering from cancer, and we all came together for that. As a cancer survivor myself, let me just add Cancer Sucks!
Here’s my interesting story about Trimbleman.. I never got to meet him, but he may have gotten married because of me. (Not that I want to be responsible, 😉 but he met a lady (from comments on my fb page) that was my Facebook friend from my hometown in Illinois. (whom I had also never met in person)…. They hit it off and I believe she was the reason he went to Kentucky. There was discussion of a beach wedding on Sanibel where I was going to give her away. Over the years we drifted apart in the busy online life and I haven’t been in contact with either of them for quite a while. So I don’t know the end of that story, but it was a modern romance for sure.
That relationship ended. I know no details.
@tommy-young I figured… but it’s still a good story. There’s always hope!
Very sad news indeed. Heaven now has one more surveyor.
I’ve been looking, but nothing has surfaced as of yet.
That’s a shame, he dates back to when the POB forum was going big.
I recall that Deral’s earliest posts were as “Topconman”.
Then he got a paying job.
I recall that Deral’s earliest posts were as “Topconman”.
Then he got a paying job.
Yes, then he went by “TM” so it covered both!
That is very sad news-he was “one of the greats” in my book. Condolences to his friends and family.
RIP Deral
I met Deral when he came to one of our conferences in Oregon. Just as pleasant and entertaining in real life as he was on-line. More so, actually. We had fun.
I grew up as an Army brat and went to high school in Lawton Oklahoma. Absolutely hated the town and the day after graduation I moved to Oregon. Decades later on a surveyor message board there’s this fellow surveyor from Lawton who is very proud of the town as reflected in his posts. I cringed and did eye rolls like a 13 year old girl hearing dad jokes from her old man at the dinner table. But seeing the town through Deral’s eyes, through his writings, eventually won me over. I have him to thank for softening my view on the place and the realization that it’s what you make of it.
Rest in Peace Deral. You’re a good man.
2004 interview in American Surveyor. I think he also made the cover of the Rolling Stone. Or POB or one of the other survey mags. Deservedly.
Whatever topic, Deral was one of the most interesting members of this forum or it’s predecessor.
RIP
Nice dedication to the Trimbleman, by Brian Portwood, PLS, at the Oklahoma Society of Land Surveyors 2023 Fall Conference | Red River Boundary Dispute and other Oklahoma court cases! Held in Stillwater, Oklahoma on 9-29-2023. Mr. Portwood held an excellent seminar and dedicated the whole thing to Trimblemans memory.
Brian Portwood is a true gentleman and a helluva surveyor.
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