Vaya con dios Billy
written by WNBF Pro - Brad Loomis
Jamie had to deliver some sad news to me yesterday. My good friend and workout partner Billy Funk was killed early Saturday morning in an Auto accident coming back to town from Reno Nevada. The details are still not "factual" but in stead from what I have heard through friends and what not. In fact, it has been hard for me to accept it as I have yet to see it or hear about it except through "hearsay." To my best understanding, he was driving home on Northbound 395 coming from Reno very early in the morning on Saturday when he fell asleep at the wheel. He swerved off the road one way, woke up, corrected, over corrected, and rolled off the road several times. When the accident was discovered, Billy had already passed away.
Billy was 26 years old and was a graduate from Portola High School. Although he never went to college or trade school, his skills and knowledge were amazing. He could skillfully operate Heavy Equipment like earth movers and bulldozers, frame a house, rebuild an automatic transmission, or repair your craftsman cordless drill. His prize posession was his HUGE Chevy 4x4 that he was completely rebuilding from the ground up. His e-mail "bigchev468" was named after the bored out 454 he had invested thousands of dollars in. Billy and his two brothers, Dan and Ed, started Funk Automotive Repair just a few short months ago and the business was booming. He had told me that in one Saturday they had brought in $4,500.
Billy and I could talk for hours about automobiles
Billy was an athlete. He possessed that freaky farmer strength that came from years and years of manual labor. The kind of strength you get from carrying Engine Blocks, stacks of 2 x 4's and operating jack hammers and ground packers. His physique and strength were the kind that made people question if he were on steroids. Although he was not fantastically co-ordinated, he was a smooth as silk on a motorcycle. Probably from experience and his understanding of motorized vehicles, he could clear doubles with ease and negotiate the trickiest hills.
Billy was a regular Ricky Carmichael
There is no doubt that I am going to miss the heck out of Billy. Tomorrow will be rough I can tell already. We were going to do our first power lifting meet together in 2 short weeks and tomorrow is deadlift day. I will be waiting to hear that lifted Mazda pickup with the KC lights on the front pushbar pull up to the gym. Then expect to see him come swaggering in with his baseball hat, red and black dufflebag in one hand, and coffee with milk in the other. It won't happen though. He loved to workout, and I loved to workout with him. He would attack things with reckless abondon. Almost like he were invincible. I would always play dad and warn him, arch that back on those deadlifts, hold that tuck when you press. He would always nod in agreement, then we would put on another 5 or 10 pounds. I will miss him no doubt. I will miss our long talks after the workout about the same 3 or 4 subjects. Working out, automobiles, eating, or business. We would talk for hours sometimes about the same subject, just finding new angles or new stories to tell. I will miss him telling me about how when he was a kid his family would fire up the generator at night and gather around the TV and VCR watching the same movie or the same epiosode of the Dukes of Hazzard. I will miss listening to his IPOD blasting on the stereo while we workout, training to ACDC, Hank Williams Jr., Van Halen, Def Leppard, Kenny Loggins and all the Rocky Music. I will dearly miss Billy Funk, Vaya con dios my brother.
Billy doing a set of barbell curls with Brad spotting.
