Loss of a friend, OBXbiker

Well ACD, I have some sad news to report. I have been trying to contact an old friend of mine and a fellow forum member, OBXbiker, since February with no luck. I have contacted mutual friends, other forums' members, and every email and phone number I have and could find for him. All with no luck. In June I heard a rumor that he had passed away. I joined several websites to try and step up my search for him, but sadly saw his name and age on the Social Security Death Index. I have not been able to find anyone else to confirm this by an obituary or a family member, but after presenting the findings to the other administrators of this forum, we decided we should make this information public and maybe as a community, we can say our piece to a friend who greatly influenced this forum.

OBXbiker, known to a few as George Barlow III, loved living in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He knew the area's history, businesses, and people like he was county commisioner. OBXbiker was an original member of the ACD forum, way back when. During ACD's formative years, there was a lot of passion about how the forum should be raised. George felt it necessary to break away from ACD and establish another forum which would be more to his vision. Many members of ACD became members there as well and after a few years, George and Bill were able to mend some fences and welcomed each other at both forum sites. OBXbiker's forum has been offline since January 2011, which was another clue that something was terribly wrong.

As most of the "old timers" here know, George had 3 huge loves in his life. One was his son and family, one was his forum, and the third was Kymco. George had 3 Kymco scooters and 2 Kymco Venox motorcycles. He was and will always be the encyclopedia of Kymco knowledge. I was fortunate enough to get to know George in person and offline from the forums. His love of Kymco was genuine. Especially his love for the Venox motorcycle. He knew correct color codes, insider contact information, everything. In 2006, George asked me to customize one of his Venox's. It was a huge, secret plan during that time and George loved to make the curiosity grow with vague postings and teaser threads. In December, I drove from Mobile, Alabama to OuterBanks, North Carolina (over 1,000 miles) to collect his black 2004 Venox and bring it back to Alabama for its "makeover". The project was named "OBnoXious" and I sent weekly email updates with photos of the progress. He planned to unveil it during the OuterBanks Bike Week in April 2007. We did just that. During the Harley Davidson sponsored show we rolled out his custom Venox. It was done as a tribute to his father, a WWII Marine B-27 pilot. The bike was hardtailed, satin green and black, blacked out wheels, ammo cans for hardcases, etc. George loved it. He plastered pictures of that bike everywhere. He told me that one of his proudest moments was when he was asked to lead the Memorial Day parade for the local military base. He sent me copies of the newspaper articles and photos of him leading the parade. The military base even did an article on his bike and his father for their newsletter and presented George with an award for his commitment to the military (even tho he did not serve).

Sadly, in late 2010, George seemed to drop off the planet. No one could locate him or make contact with him. One of his long-time friends, Doug (aka "Pops") told me that George had been quietly battling cancer and passed away in early 2011. This information was confirmed by the Social Security Death Index and Ancestry.com.

George, aka "OBXbiker", we at ACD salute you for your passion and dedication to our passions. Life as we know it would not be the same without you. And on a personal note, I will always have our friendship in a special place in my heart. Good bye, my friend.