It is with great sadness that we share the recent passing of our dear founder, husband, brother, father, uncle, and friend, Karl Egbert. Karl passed peacefully from this life surrounded by his wife and four children on December 12, 2024. He is dearly missed by his family, friends, and all who had the privilege to know him. Many know that Karl faced down a long battle with early onset Alzheimer's disease which ultimately led to his passing. Behind the devastating disease was man full of life and love for all he came into contact with.
Karl grew up near Golden, Colorado and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Colorado School of Mines. During his time at Mines he did work helping design cooling systems for buses. Through that experience he found a love for the HVAC and evaporative cooling industry.
After marrying his sweetheart, Cynthia, he started a company called ACKBERT with another great mind in the industry, Rob Acker. The company was bought out not long after its start. After a few years of working for someone else Karl and Cynthia decided they wanted to try and work for themselves once again.
In 1998, just before the passing of his mother, Karl and Cynthia started ATEC/Indirex an evaporative cooling company designed to specialize in distribution and wholesale of evaporative cooling media and equipment. With their (at the time) two children and one on the way, they put it all on the line to be their own bosses, follow their dreams, and spend more time on what they treasured most, their family.
Over the past 25+ years, Karl, Cynthia, and their four kids (Michayla, Malachi, Kodren, & Seviah) have seen ATEC grow to the successful business it is today, and have added many ATEC family members to the crew along the way. Karl has become a well known, and highly respected, mind in the world of evaporative cooling, HVAC, and humidification. His studies and work has been published and he is a proud member of ASHRAE.
ATEC was just a part of the life of Karl Egbert, he was also heavily involved with his congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He loved teaching and taught for many years in the church's education programs. He loved working with the youth programs of the church and mentored many through their youth along their path to adulthood. Karl also loved to draw cartoons, he would always say he was an engineer by trade and a cartoonist by heart. He long dreamed of taking his cartoons to the world through his creative stories and sayings. Many have reached out to express their love for Karl and the Share-A-Parable cartoon cards they still have in mirrors, wallets, etc. He was also very involved in the community, he coached little league and high school baseball at Platte Canyon, for him "baseball was life."
Beyond his own passions and hobbies he was always happy to be involved in whatever his kids were into. These kid-driven activities lead to his involvement in swimming, theatre, speech, rugby, and many years of devoted volunteering in the local county fair. He will always be know as Karl The Clown, the kind hearted fun loving kids rodeo clown of the Park County Fair. Everywhere Karl went he made friends into family, his family often joked how they wouldn't let dad go for groceries because a quick run always turned into hours, a new friend, and a whole life story.
Things started to change in the Egbert family when they started to notice a similar decline to that of his mother years before. All fears were confirmed in 2020 when Karl was officially diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease. The decline was eminent but even in his quiet state of later stages folks of his memory care unit flocked to say their goodbyes to a special man who had touched their hearts. There is so much to say and lets face it a simple blog post cannot perfectly capture a life full of service and light. As we move forward may we celebrate a great man taken too soon with a remarkable legacy. The family thanks all for their loving words, thoughts, prayers, and memories. May we go forth from this sadness with added dedication to serving those around us with intention and light. Remembering always to laugh, because as Karl always reminded us " Laughter isn't always the best medicine, sometimes its the only medicine."
Obituary for Karl Egbert:
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