Miss you. Selwyn
On March 24, 2013, the dental industry lost a revered leader, colleague and friend, Norbert Duepner.
We invite you to share your story of how this remarkable man touched your life.
Tributes
Leave a tributeMiss you. Selwyn
You are in my thoughts. Peace ~
Sumara
You are still missed ~
Sumara
Sumara
You are missed ~
Sumara
You are in my thoughts.
Sumara
Sumara
I miss you ~
For 3 years now, you've been gone, but you will live in my memory and in my heart for all my life.
It has been 2 long years since your unexpected passing. Your are so often in my thoughts and also remembered by so many of your international friends. They say time heals but the void your passing created cannot be filled. You are a legend and will always hold a special place in my memories. Rest well Norb. We miss you.
We still miss your voice,but luckily we have Richard who has always done a great impersonation of you. He can still give any customer technical information on anything he has heard you tell them in the pastI, in your voice and it makes us all think of you. He does it because he is so fond of you, you left such an impression on him and he has so much respect for everthing you have done with your life and in your carreer. Remember how he always called you 'Colonel'
You always acted like you could not understand any resemblance to
The Colonel he meant. He did it all in fun because you meant so much to him as you do to all of us.
You are forever in our hearts and minds
Bless your family as well
Love m
We still miss your voice,but luckily we have Richard who has always done a great impersonation of you. He can still give any customer technical information on anything he has heard you tell them in the pastI, in your voice and it makes us all think of you. He does it because he is so fond of you, you left such an impression on him and he has so much respect for everthing you have done with your life and in your carreer. Remember how he always called you 'Colonel'
You always acted like you could not understand any resemblance to
The Colonel he meant. He did it all in fun because you meant so much to him as you do to all of us.
You are forever in our hearts and minds
Bless your family as well
Love m
Rest in peace my friend, you deserve it.
There is a void in Argen that can never be filled.
Selwyn.
I miss you.
Sumara
It’s been a year since you left us. It still hurts, but I’ll take the pain for I’m a better man for being your son.
Love you,
Victor
we miss you dearly and you are forever in our thoughts.
Your blessed Jack's photo is hanging on our wall.
He proudly wears your tie, and reminds us of you every time We walk down the hall. I am sure your beautiful family will celebrate your life today. God bless you all!
losing you so makes my heart hurt!
The world has lost a sweet, generous, hard-working gentleman;
You inspire me to do the very best I can.
The most amazing father one could ever hope for
I burst with pride, my spirits soar.
With you by my side, nothing else would ever matter.
You always made me proud to be your daughter.
My love for you is so immense;
The world w
My sincerest condolences to the Agren family and to Norberts' family
Norbert was amazing! A big, bright sunshine ray that shined 5 days a week...we were all lucky to see and feel that energy!
I wish you well on your new journey.
My thoughts and prayers go out to your family and Argen family.
What will I do, when I have a question? When I need some guidance?
It has always been "get Norbert on the line" always knowing my trouble will be solved. I don't look forward to that first question without you
I will so miss our talks and sharing of friendship. Be it regarding dental related issues or just rambling conversation. And, of course the animal emails sent back and forth.
It was forever generously informative, uplifting and heart felt.
Thank you Norbert. You have been a gift to me.
I miss you.
My prayers and blessings go out to his family, colleagues and friends.
"Until we meet again-"
My sincere condolences to the entire Argen family.
I had Norbert come to Texas many times over the years and every time, he would meet my daughters.
Norbert always treated me and everyone like gold. He was truly a treasure.
I’m going to miss him very much.
My sincerest condolences to his family.
Leave a Tribute
Miss you. Selwyn
You are in my thoughts. Peace ~
Sumara
You are still missed ~
Sumara
Valentines Day
Norbert, as everyone knows, hated fish. Shortly after he joined us,we had a potential customer visit us. The customer was extremely important and we needed to take him for dinner on Valentines. Norb was upset as he could not spend Valentines night with his beloved wife.
The next order of business was to find a restaurant that had avalibility on Valentines. We found one restaurant that had availability, and they only served fish, no meat This we only ascertained when we sat down and saw the menu. Norb’s face told the whole story. Not only had he sacrificed having dinner with his beloved Valentine, but now there was nothing for him to eat. He did enjoy dessert
Needless to say every Valentine’s Day he would make a point of coming past my office and asked if we could go for a fish dinner.
Norb the void you left cannot ever be filled. The only way to fill a minute amount of that void is to remember your great sense of humour and the gentleman that you were.
You are sadly missed my friend, but not forgotten.
Celebration of my father's life
On March 24th my father passed away. At his request instead of mourning him, we had a ceremony to celebrate his life. This was the speech I gave at the ceremony. Hopefully it will give some of you a little insight at what a wonderful man he was.
Hello, my name is Victor Norbert Duepner, and besides my middle name there are a few thing I inherited from my father. A slightly larger than average nose, a slightly smaller than average chin, that's why we are both fans of the beard, a receiding hairline. Although, there we differ. He looked good and made his work were I said "Oh, so you want to recede do you? Nyum nyum!" (sound effect of electric razor)
He also had two quirks. My sister inherited one, which is when they clean their right ear with a Q-tip, they both cough. The one I inherited, and both my children have, is that if we are somewhere were it is dark, and we come out to a bright light, like the sun, it makes us sneeze. Not a bunch of times, just once.
The main thing I inherited from him, which my daughter Dulcinea can attest to is his "corny-ness gene". Her father, just like mine, has a corny sense of humor.
The first night we arrived here I saw her looking thru her suitcase. "What are you looking for?" I asked. "The charger to my phone". Without hesitation I said "Now that we're here, I guess that makes it a San Diego Charger" and I realized that's the kind of thing Dad would have said .
I remember one time when we lived in Missouri, I was eating breakfast and my Dad was looking out our backdoor into the back yard. "Come here son" he whispered. "What is it Dad" "See over there? That rabbit in the back yard?" "Yes" I said. "Doesn't it look like he's eating something?" "Yes" I said with intrigue. Then he yelled out "Are you eating Bugs Bunny?" and we both proceeded to laugh our heads off.
Another thing I remember about growing up is that sometimes we would have a game night and many times we would play password. It was usually boys against the girls, so the teams were my Mom and Julie against my Dad and me. Many of you know my Dad was a man of few words, but he knew how to make them count. I remember one particular game, the password was "canoe". My mom gave the clue "boat' "ship" Julie guessed. Now it was our turn. My dad used the same clue, but he also used his fingers to make Indian feathers. "Boat" he said, with the non-verbal Indian clue added, it was obvious it was canoe. My mom and Julie accussed us of cheating, but we won.
The other thing about playing Password with my dad was that if I got the clue right, he would say "Yes" or "That's right" or something similar. If I got the clue wrong, on the other hand, he wouldn't say anything. He would just do what I came to describe as his "suck lemon face". Say for example the password was "grape", if he said "purple" and I said "Pimpernel" he would go (demonstrate suck lemon face).
Many people claim to have memories of a being a baby in a crib. Others claim to have memories from the womb. From the time I was born, I don't remember anything prior to Kindergarden. I do however have a memory from before I was born. God came to me and told me I was to be blessed. That I was to be born to wonderful parents, Norb and Leti Duepner who would be the best parents anyone could ask for, and that I would also have a fantastic sister named Julie who would look after me and protect me. Then he said that he would like to give me a gift. He said I could choose between having the most fantastic memory, to be able to remember everything having only seen it once, or he could make me a terrific lover. You know, I can't remember why I started telling you this story,
The one thing I didn't inherit from my dad was his genius as a metallurgist. I couldn't tell you the difference between silver and platinum. They both look the same to me. I know gold, that's the yellow one. I don't know anything about alloys except that if Iron Man and the Silver Surfer teamed up together, they would be alloys (allies). That's the kind of joke my dad would like.
Besides being funny, he was a great dad. Many boys when they are little have teddy bears. My son still kept his, his name is Rudolph. The bear, not my son. My son's name is Darian. My favorite stuffed animal growing up was a lion. His name was Lion. I'm not sure how I came up with the name. Of course being little, I called him "my liron". One day when I was in Kindergarden, they had show and tell in school. What a treat it was for me, I could bring my liron, my buddy to school and tell everyone how he was my friend and protector. So I did. Then it came time to go out and play, time to go home, time for dinner, watch TV and then time for bed. Where's my liron? Oh no, Ieft him at school! How could I sleep without my liron? He guarded me while I slept. He made sure the monsters stayed under the bed and in the closet so I could sleep safely. I felt afraid, so I started to cry. My mom and dad asked what was wrong, so i told them. My dad asked me if I knew where in the school I had left him. I told him I did, so at night, in the dark, when the school was closed, my dad took me to that school, and convinced the night watchman, who only spoke Spanish because this happened in Mexico, to let us in so I could get my liron. I went home and was able to sleep well knowing I had my protector. Years later I realized that I had many nights of restful sleep because I had my protector, but it wasn't my liron...it was my dad. Love you Dad!
This might be one of the most difficult thing I’ve had to do here at Argen, but I feel I owe it to the man who I’ve spent half of my entire life with.
November 21st, 1988 will be a date that will never be forgotten. Jackie and Juanita both approached me with joy and said that I would be working with a
“Dear Old Man”, the Argen family knows him as Norbert, but here in the lab he was simply “Norb” (well at least that’s what his casting glasses say). Little did I know that the next 25 years to come this “Dear Old Man” was not going to be a Supervisor but would rather become my 2nd father.
Daddy, you filled the lab with rays of sunshine and memories of a lifetime. There is a huge void here at Argen, here in the lab, and most of all in our hearts.
You will never ever have to worry about your computer and keyboard not working right!!!
Your daughter
Usha