David Robert Kimbel

David Robert Kimbel, 68 passed away Thursday, November 3, 2016 at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.A memorial service will be held at 11:00am Tuesday, November 8, 2016 at Butler Funeral Home Chapel in Stedman with Rev. Steve Lloyd officiating.David Robert Kimbel was born October 16, 1948 to Kenneth and Margaret Kimbel in Montgomery County Pennsylvania, where he spent his elementary years and developed a lifelong love of snow. He and his family returned to Eastover, North Carolina and after several other business ventures started a chicken farm where Robert learned to appreciate the values of family and of hard work. He attended NC State for one year, but decided to return home to help at the chicken farm and the new family bake shop, also attending Fayetteville Technical College where he received a degree in Civil Engineering. While Sandra Starling was delivering eggs to the Kimbel family, Robert struck-up a conversation with her, they later began dating, and then he married the love of his life. After their marriage, they moved to Winston-Salem where he worked with the City of Winston-Salem North Carolina (HUD), and they were blessed with a son, Ericson Paul Kimbel. They moved back to Fayetteville where he continued to work with The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and in the Fayetteville Information Technology Department, ultimately retiring from that position. In April of 1980, Robert opened Haymont Mini Speedway, a slot car business, operating it for five years before closing the business, but continuing strong friendships with a number of his customers. Everyone Robert met became a fast and lifelong friend. He always had a winning smile, unruly hair, a twinkle in his eye, and a joke to share. He was a junkyard artist, and he loved to entertain children, through the slot car track, through snowmaking with a homemade snowmaking machine, through the remote control car track that he built with his brother-in-law Tony or through his paintings, wood sculptures, and weldments but especially by his teasing and jokes. He loved to solve problems and saw value all around him, for example, converting the old chicken houses aluminum and wood into a solid two story barn behind his house, or by reaching out a helping hand (and often a helping shovel) to someone in need. He became interested in the Carolina Bays, and his hands-on research into their formation supported a joint research article published in a National Technical Journal. He has now joined his mother, Margaret, father, Kenneth, and sister Nancy Pruitt who preceded him death, and is survived on this earth by his loving wife of 48 years, Sandra Kimbel; his son, Ericson Kimbel, and wife Maria; niece, Alysha Kyle Tyndall and husband Reid; four grandchildren, Ericson Kimbel II, Joshua Brant and wife Marisa, Dru Brant and Makayla Kimbel; great nephew Wyatt Revels; and great niece Caroline Tyndall; great grandson, Aidan Brant; and four siblings, Mickey Kimbel and wife Linda, Bill Kimbel and wife Debbie, Susan Henderson and husband David and Steven Kimbel and wife Shella.

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