Rusty had a great sense of humor. I remember one time at a Topeka contest, Rusty was walking Sugar Baby back to the car for something, and Sugar Baby gave out a little Yip!. Rusty turned to Sugar Baby and said, "Sugar Baby, you know we don't drink beer before ten O'Clock."
Another time Rusty and I were talking engines as we usually did, and I told him that I had a pretty good running Madewell 49, but that the crank had broken. Well! A couple of days after the contest was over I got a package in the mail. You guessed it. A brand new crank for a Madewell 49.
Rusty and I were pitting for each other at the Nat's in old time, and we were both the last ones to fly for the day. Rusty put in a really good flight and we went and looked at the scores. Rusty was in 7th. Rusty said with a smile; "If I had known I scored that well I might have tried a little harder."
The first time I saw Rusty fly his Taurus with the Fox 59, I knew I had to have one. Rusty sent me the plans and gave me lots of instructions on how to set up the Fox. When I switched engines to the Anderson Spitfire, Rusty was again the guy to go to for help.
More than all of the help I got from him, was just the chance to hang out with one of the greatest guys in modeling I have ever known.
Rusty truly loved people and modeling; An inspiration to me and many others. Rusty; You will be missed, but we have our memories.