Dr. Cory Marvin Papenfuss

Cory M. Papenfuss, 41, of Dublin, VA, died on January 4, 2017, as a result of injuries sustained in a small plane crash in Brookfield, WI. He and his wife, Carmen and their 6 month old son, Benjamin were flying back to Virginia after visiting friends and family in Wisconsin and Minnesota for the holidays. Cory is survived by his wife, Carmen, and son, Ben, his parents, Dr. Marvin and Linda Papenfuss, sister, Dr. Tracey L. Papenfuss (Tom Dauber)and brother, Lucas A. Papenfuss (Susan) . He is also survived by his parents in law, Dr. Roger and Pat Green, their family, and many other relatives and friends.

Cory was born on November 28, 1975, in Dubuque, Iowa where he spent most of his childhood. His family eventually moved to Juneau, Alaska, where he graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School. Cory then attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1998. He then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and obtained a M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2001. The next step in his education took him to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA where he received his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering in 2006. He was currently employed at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg as a Vibrations and Acoustics Research Assistant.

Over the course of time the Papenfuss family lived in Alaska and Cory fit into life on the Last Frontier perfectly. He loved the wonderful hiking, boating and fishing for salmon and huge halibut, King Crabbing and everything else Alaska had to offer. He had a great adventuresome spirit.

Cory had a lifelong interest in flying and began taking flying lessons in Blacksburg and during this process was introduced to a fabulous group of flying friends, and in turn met many others through them. His love of flying was born! He made his first cross country flight from VA to WI for his sister’s wedding in 2002. He and his best friend, John, took off for a flying adventure to Alaska in 2007. From then on there were hundreds of fabulous flights and he had several thousand nautical miles.

Then there was the brewing. His friend, John, mentioned home brewing to him, and Cory quickly found a new fun hobby. He transferred his interest to Luke,and then Fussbier was born. They collaborated on all things related to brewing and both enjoyed the camaraderie associated with the brewing and especially with the consuming!

Eventually in Blacksburg he met the love of his life, Carmen. They had waited a long time to find one another and their love was something to behold. They were married on April 13, 2013, and thus began the rest of their lives. Carmen appreciated all the quirkiness that was the embodiment of Cory---and there was a lot of quirkiness! She also introduced him to another whole circle of friends and this Blues/Classic Rock music lover soon turned into an Old Time music lover and stand-up bass player in The Happy Hollow String Band which played at many venues. Their lives were totally blessed by the addition of Benjamin Lucas on July 14, 2016. He was so proud of his son and was the best Daddy ever and looked forward to teaching him all the silly things that Daddies teach their little boys.

Cory was an amazing man, a gift to the world. To know him was to love him. He had no enemies. He was handsome, brilliant, humble, kind, geeky, wonderfully weird and loved by all who knew him. The Germanic meaning of Cory’s name is "The Chosen One” or “God’s Peace”. Our family knows that God chose him, and we pray for God’s peace. Our world will never be the same again, but heaven will be a lot more interesting and fun and will probably have a new brewery, a string band and be acoustically sound.

We look forward to seeing him again and sharing a pint. Cheers Bubba Cory!

Visitation will be held on Monday, January 16th from 10-11AM at ST. JOHN’S EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH in Nodine, MN, followed by the funeral service at 11AM. Burial St. John’s Church Cemetery.