Wiley Robinson

kmead

Old enough to know better
Sadly Wiley passed away Sunday, Jan 17 (looking for better confirmation), apparently due to a heart attack.

If you have any further details please post it and I will correct or update this post.

There is a thread over on on Mira, which I couldn’t link to, if you wish to learn a bit more.



This is a note from Facebook by Shaun Folkerts.

Some sad news to report this morning, fellow SHiFters. Wiley Robinson, one of the giants of our group - both physically and metaphorically speaking - has passed away rather unexpectedly. The news yesterday hit those of us who were Wiley's friends quite hard, and close to home: another wake-up call regarding the fragility of life. Wiley and I didn't agree on one single damned thing in life outside of our shared love of family and odd, old, interesting cars. But we were close friends for half our lives. I first met Wiley when he still lived in NC, where he was born and raised, and thought he was nuts when he uprooted and moved to El Paso in the mid (late?)-1990s. He quickly met a beautiful young co-worker at his office in Mexico, got married, and like me, found himself raising three kids. I visited nearly every time I was out that way, which, fortunately, was quite often...once a year at least. Wiley and family once put me up for a week in their home while I changed the engine - in their driveway! - of a 1981 Brava that he and I found together while out junkyarding El Paso one day in the year 2000. Over the years, we exchanged countless cars and parts: we bought cars and parts *for* each other and we bought cars and parts *from* each other. And it was always FUN; we enjoyed each others' friendship and comeraderie tremendously. I don't think a single month passed over the decades we've been friends where we didn’t communicate at least once. To say I'm gonna miss this big goofy oaf of a gringo with the slow southern drawl would be a huge understatement. I know that all of you who knew him - personally or just online - feel the same way. Our world has become smaller and less interesting. Please share any memories/photos you may have of our friend below, and keep his wife and children in your prayers...if you're into that kinda thing. This morning's photo was the second-to-last thing Wiley ever posted to FB, on the same day he passed. Godspeed with a bronze KC-lighted rollbar-and-running-board equipped 3-axle 1970s pick-em-up truck, Amigo.​
 
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