TRIVIAL

We could have just posted a link to Ted Burgon's obituary, but that wouldn't have done him justice.

Since 1990 Ted was in a few dozen different countries, was in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, in Moscow when the Kremlin was under attack during a coup attempt and living and working in a Muslim country following September 11th despite all of the warnings against it.

Ted was a very special human being who did not give into hatred or fears based on religious, cultural or societal stature.

Hollywood couldn't make his story, the public would sneer that it was all made up, nobody could have seen, done or even thought about all of those things.

He did.

If you want any information or pick something off any of the news wires, let me know. This is one of those events that will not be readily forgotten and people will point to it a few years from now and say, "why didn't we see the warning signs even after September 11th, Israel and everywhere else?"

SUNRIVER, Ore. A celebration of life for former Shasta County resident Ted Burgon, 71, of Sunriver, Ore., will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday at River Bend Golf & Country Club in Redding.

Mr. Burgon died Saturday, Aug. 31, 2002, in Indonesia.

Born July 16, 1931, in Pocatello, Idaho, he was a Shasta County resident in the 1960s and the 1970s and then moved to Sunriver in 1991. He was a co-operator of a family optical business in Pocatello, a graduate of Idaho State University, a former smoke jumper, an educator and principal for schools in Igo/Ono, French Gulch, and Redding, a crew member on the world champion Graybeard yacht in the Sydney-to-Hobart, Australia race, and a writer/photographer for the Idaho State Journal covering events in Russia. He was also a former tank officer and captain in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War, an Idaho National Guardsman, in charge of security for the Saudi Arabia International School in Riyadh during the Gulf War, a member of Lions International, International American Chamber of Commerce, Deschutes County Traffic Safety Committee, and the Bend, Ore., Christmas Parade Committee, Chairman of Adopt a Highway, and he worked at schools in Germany, Australia, Russia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, China, South Africa, and Peru.

Survivors include wife Nancy; sons Mark of Redding and Dirk of Chico; brother Gary of Port MalQuarie, NSW, Australia; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.