[Az-Geocaching] Arizona Geocaching has Lost a Pioneer

[Tonio Kroger]

Judi and I learned this evening that Bob Renner,
GCB0B<http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=c30c0111-c06e-4827-a0da-30c9bfdcdd40>,
passed away yesterday after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer.

Bob was a true pioneer of Arizona caching. At the Deer Valley Ten Year Event
Cache <http://coord.info/GC26AXC> last May, when they did the countdown of
who had been caching the longest, Bob (who can be seen in the group photo on
that cache page, front row center in the white hat) was the "last man
standing". Bob placed Arizona'ssecond geocache <http://coord.info/GC7B> in
October, 2000. It's still active and I can speak from experience that it is
a worthy and worthwhile challenge.

Bob made many other contributions to Arizona caching. He created Arizona's
first event cache <http://coord.info/GC51D> in March 2001. He created what
is certainly one of the firstmulti-caches <http://coord.info/GC51C> in the
state, and it is still active today. He placed a still-active cache at
the bottom
of the Grand Canyon <http://coord.info/GC5F1>. And his still-active "Box O
Books" cache (GCB0B <http://coord.info/GCB0B>) is probably the only cache
anywhere that not only has a GC ID that is an acronym of the cache title,
but also a GC ID that is identical to the hider's name!

Bob was a giver. He taught "Introduction to Geocaching" classes at REI, and
at the Desert Outdoor Center at Lake Pleasant. He introduced geocaching to
numerous scouts in Boy Scout Troop 824. In 2002-2003, Bob served as a
liaison between the geocaching community and the Arizona State Historical
Preservation Office and other land management agencies, at a time when those
agencies perceived geocaching as a threat to sites with archaeological or
environmental sensitivity. Were it not for Bob's efforts, we might have far
fewer acres in the state on which to play our little game. And he did all
this with calm in the face of stress, humor in the face of threats, and
thoughtfulness in the face of emotion. Geocaching in Arizona would not be
the special experience it so often is had we not had the good fortune of Bob
Renner's participation.

Bob is survived by his wife, Marion, and two sons. As I write this, funeral
and memorial plans have not been announced. I will pass along any
information that I receive.

Steve
Team Tierra Buena
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