Today (March 27, 2012) marks the second grim anniversary of the murder of Arizona rancher Rob Krentz. The report on FOX News described the scene, speculated about the killer, spoke to neighbors about the smuggling of drugs and illegal aliens into the country, but only briefly described who we lost and what kind of man Rob Krentz was. “What a great guy he was,” says his widow, Sue Krentz.

For his family and friends, everything has changed. Holidays, birthdays, graduations, Christmas are all different. For Sue, there are reminders of Rob all around her, everywhere, every day, tragic reminders of the loss of a good man who had never done harm to anyone. In fact, Rob Krentz’s life was one of giving and helping others, continuously. Sue remembers, “Rob was as methodical as the day is long. Dependable. He was a good man and deserves a good memory.”

He was a man who could, in Sue’s words, “Take care of kids, train a horse and repair a computer.” He was a kind soul and a gentleman’s gentleman. A cowboy in the modern era.

He taught his kids, nieces and nephews and others to love life, work hard and do what you wanted to do, so long as you were still a respectable person doing it. He believed in, “A full day’s work for a full days wages.” He believed that everything you possessed had to be earned.

Rancher, Rob Krentz

He loved his brother Phil and sister Susan who were very important to him. He spoke to them every day and was very proud of everything they did and proud of their children. “Rob would always say that he was a luckiest guy because he and his brother got along and his brother was a good hand and he trusted his brother,” Sue recalls. And he loved his sprawling 35,000+ acre ranch in southeast Arizona, what Sue calls her “competition” for his attention.

Both born and raised in Douglas, Arizona, Rob and Sue Kimble met as students at Douglas High School. In his Senior Year in 1969, as a member of FFA (Future Farmers of America), Rob competed at The Arizona National Livestock Show in Phoenix and won Reserve Grand Champion, with the steers he raised defeating the cattle of the legendary John Wayne. (Read the rest of the story…)