Today, 4 February 2022, would have been Dennis Kristof’s 79th birthday.
I am sure he would have celebrated with a ride, as he loved motorcycles.
But, sadly, Dennis was killed on 8 January 2022 while riding with a motorcycle touring group in Thailand. His wife and pillion, Taew, was severely injured, but survived. Their son and daughter are with their mom as she completes her recovery.
Dennis was born in 1943. His hometown, Bad Neustadt an der Saale, in Upper Bavaria, is a lovely place, and only a few miles north of where I was born in Würzburg. Dennis grew up in Germany, but came to the U.S. as an adult, where he became a successful businessman in Georgia, doing international agriculture trade, primarily in Thailand where he met Taew.
Dennis was a well-traveled motorcyclist, tallying many hundreds of thousands of miles over the years. And, I do not mean “mere” miles, but of the sort that involved multiple runs to the likes of Prudhoe Bay and Ushuaia. He once crashed his beloved BMW GS in the mountains of Chile on one of the latter trips, and spent weeks in a hospital in Santiago. On recovery, he continued on that trek! He also shipped that GS to Europe to ride from Amsterdam to St. Petersburg. In the U.S., he especially delighted in riding with friends in the Southeast on another BMW and a Kawasaki Concours.
Dennis was one of the most technically proficient riders I have ever seen, a natural on two wheels. That said, most of his riding friends — and I am honored to count myself among them — would not (or could not) emulate his … erm … “exciting” riding style. Let’s just say that it often attracted the attention of law-enforcement officials. Yet, although frequently stopped for roadside discussions with uniformed personnel, Dennis had an astonishingly clean driving record. Despite his age, he always had a boyish grin, and that, along with his undeniable charm and strong German accent, led more times than he deserved to “OK, Sir, just be careful and slow it down,” without getting any written “Performance Award.”
World-traveler Dennis was an unabashed American patriot who knew more about U.S. history than most native-born Americans. He also spent much of his time in Thailand on business and pleasure. He and Taew owned a home there and, naturally, he had a motorcycle in his garage. They were on that machine when they crashed.
I paste in, below, two emails with photos I received from Dennis just a few days before his death.
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From: Dennis Kristof
Subject: Pictures from Dennis in Thailand
Date: 6 January 2022 at 05:56:41 EST
To: Bill Hagan
Hi Bill,
Thank you so much for sending me some wonderful pictures from your home with family and friends. I am sure you had a wonderful Christmas and new year celebration with your family. I don’t envy you for snow and cold weather in Virginia because I am enjoying the tropical sun entirely in the last two mornings riding my motorcycle 650 Suzuki V Strom all over the country with some young friends and my wife. We will be staying here until the end of this month. We plan to return home on January 31 if traveling conditions allow and they let us fly home. I hope to see you guys in the spring to ride with you again and until then I wish you all the best in the new year.
Auf Wiedersehen,
Dennis
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The next day, he sent this:
From: Dennis Kristof
Subject: Touring Thailand on two wheels with my wife and lots of new friends
Date: 7January, 2022 at 09:07:07 EST
To: Bill Hagan
Life is wonderful here great weather and great company greeting from the Far East.
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Then, he left us.
I have been gathering photos of Dennis from the many trips and other good times we spent with him in the hopes of posting this memoriam on his birthday on some motorcycle forums. Here are a few that illustrate his joyful, generous, and adventurous soul.
This last was in Owensboro, Kentucky, in September 2021 when Dennis, others, and I were on a “Mutton Run.” We also visited Green River
Distillery and Dennis, so typically, shared his purchase with us that evening.
More individual shots in this Smugmug album …
…
https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Dennis-Kristof-1943-2022-RIP/n-CPqjbG/And, here are some slideshows of him and others riding along the years. Hover, if you care, your cursor over the pix to see the captions.
https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Sashaying-to-Swanzey-in-2015/n-NR8Rrf/https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Men-Motorcycles-Mutton/n-GRNH7j/https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Mutton-Run-2019-/n-9V3j52/https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Muttoneering-Sept-2021/n-VzxTGK/For all sorts of obvious reasons, no memorial service has yet been planned back in the U.S., but there will be some celebration of Dennis’s remarkable life when his wife and children return. I will post details of that here when the family sets a date and place. Dennis’s great friend and road companion, George, wonders if Two Wheels of Suches —
https://twowheelsofsuches.com — might not be a great venue. But, whenever and wherever, tales — tall and true — will be told of this gentle giant.
Finally, as a mutual friend observed when he learned of his death: "Dennis was one of those larger-than-life characters who managed to pack about five lifetimes of experiences and travel into one life; I was glad I was able to meet him and ride with him. I'm sure he left people feeling the same as we did across four continents.”
Yes, indeed. The saying “joie de vivre" is French, but I have never known a person who lived that phrase more than German-gened Dennis. I can only hope that, for his sake — tho not necessarily His!
— that there are twisty roads and motorcycles in Heaven!
We miss you already, “Chancellor.” You’ll always ride with us.
Bill & Kathi Hagan
