Eugene Edward Followell

Eugene Edward Followell was born September 20, 1958, in Duluth Minnesota to Carldon Eugene “Gene” Followell and Myrna Ilene Johnston.

Ed grew up as a military brat while his dad served in the Air Force. Living in Arizona, Hawaii and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

After high school, Ed proudly served in the Marine Corps from December 1975 to December 1979, attending Boot camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego California. He was then off to Tech school or MOS training at Camp Lejeune North Carolina. He was stationed at Okinawa Japan as an Electronic Equipment Repairman. After his tour in the Marines, he returned home to Cheyenne where he worked various jobs before beginning his civil service career at FE Warren AFB, which spanned 34 years. He worked in the Pavement & Equipment section, Alarms Shop, Controls Shop and eventually worked his way up to Facilities Superintendent, where he remained until his retirement in February of 2018. 

When he retired he challenged himself by doing a couch to 5k. This sparked his love of running, he completed 1-6k, 3-10k, 20-5k races. He has a sticker on his car that says “I run… I’m slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter, but I run.” He competed in the following states: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, South Carolina, California, Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Idaho, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Texas. 

He was an avid motorcyclist throughout his life, which was passed down from his dad. After his retirement he completed the Saddle Sore 1000: 1000 miles in 24 hours, and the Bun Burner challenge: 1,500 miles in 24 hours.

Ed was a lifelong angler and received the Cutt Slam certificate, which states “You have demonstrated a knowledge and appreciation of Wyoming’s native cutthroat trout by catching four cutthroat subspecies in their native waters”. These are the fish he caught: The Yellowstone cutthroat at the East Fork Wind River. The Snake River Cutthroat at the Grays River. The Colorado River Cutthroat at the North Fork Little Snake & the Bonneville cutthroat at Salt Creek, this was all completed in less than a month. With this passion of fishing Ed learned to make fly rods and fishing poles. He made many poles which he freely gave away to family and friends. 

Ed hunted throughout his life with his brothers, sons, and friends. Ed proudly displayed his trophy mounts in the home. At one time when the children were growing up and the family ran out of wild meat and regular hamburger was bought, the children complained that it tasted funny.

He was known for a large number of hot sauces he kept on display at work before retiring, which made him a hot sauce enthusiast. Ed enjoyed attending boat races, competing in rifle competitions where he received many medals. He attended rocket launches which he worked around his hobbies and checked off many things on his bucket list as he traveled. He enjoyed the sport of geocaching and found 711 finds while creating 12 geocaches himself. He was known as GrizKing to the geocaching world. He admired another geocacher known as doglover&pups who has 5,715 finds and has created 85 finds himself. When doglover&pups saw that Ed was finding many of his caches, doglover&pups created a new cache and named it GrizKing bait. Yes, Ed did find this cache. 

Ed wanted to learn to Scuba dive, so he took classes in Colorado. He soon realized he needed to seek extra help when he was unable to pass the treading water portion of the course. After gaining his certification, he traveled to Mexico numerous times a year to hang out with a group of scuba friends and go diving. 

Ed has a sticker on his car that says “all those who wander are not lost”. That was true with his wandering around the country. During Ed’s wanderings he visited 103 National Parks.

Ed became an amateur photographer starting in the military and continued throughout his life. His photography consisted of nature, landscapes, and he became very good at double exposures.

As you can see Ed was an active hobbyist which means he had many hobbies. More of those hobbies included marbles, fly tying, board games, puzzles, cards, kites, hunting mushrooms, RC Planes, HAM Operator, woodwork, stained glass, mason jar collecting, camping, reloading, family history and flying drones.

Ed made retirement look so good.

Ed was a family man supporting his large family as taxi driver for baseball, softball, swimming, volleyball, football, Judo, gymnastics, piano, band, orchestra, track and he attended as many events as possible of the grandchildren after his retirement.

He was preceded in death by his father Carldon, son Tyson David Followell, and beloved Tabasco.

Survived by mother: Myrna Ilene, brothers: Tony Followell and David Followell, spouse: Debby Followell, children: Nolan Followell, Corylynn Followell, Megan Johnson, Katie Tinjum, Spring Campbell, Talon Followell, Logan Followell, and grandchildren: Caden Followell, Anthony Lopez, Kadrie Followell, Brooklynn Lopez, Marie Tinjum, Sammie Tinjum, Tailee Followell, Russell Johnson, Nichole Campbell, Taya Followell, Jewely Johnson, Hunter Campbell, Cooper Johnson, Kapri Followell, and Gemma Johnson.

We find comfort in knowing that Ed’s legacy lives on through the lessons he taught us, the love he shared and the memories we will cherish forever.