H. Blair Muhlestein

Beloved husband, father, grandfather and artist Howard "Blair" Muhlestein, 75, passed away peacefully at home, Thursday, April 5, 2012 in Loveland, Colo., surrounded by family and friends in a chorus of laughter and song.

Born May 24, 1936 in Spanish Fork, Utah, Blair was married to Sara ( Rodney) for 56 years. The couple raised five sons Kirtis, Ken, Kyle, Keith and Kris while Blair worked as tool and manufacturing engineer and held a Professional Engineering license at Hewlett-Packard in California, Delaware, and Colorado-a career spanning 35 years.

Blair was an unusually gifted man of many talents, with a wide variety of interests. With an avid love of camping and hiking, he was active as a Scoutmaster for 20 years. As part of that role, when a Scout reached the rank of First Class, Blair would carve a neckerchief slide for him. From that, Blair's interest in sculpting grew from wood and paper into bronze, which allowed him more artistic freedom.

Over the course of 25 years of sculpting he developed a wide body of work primarily known as "realistic children" in addition to abstract and kinetic art. There are over 5,000 pieces of Blair's artwork displayed around the world, including in the home of President Gerald Ford, Olympic gold medalists Bonnie Blair and Dan Janson, as well as being featured in the television show "Touched by an Angel." Typical of Blair's giving nature, he enjoyed leading free sculpture lessons at his gallery in Loveland.

During his life Blair was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He prided himself as a world traveler having traversed Europe, and all 50 states (the hard way, with a van full of five active boys). He dreamed many times of flying. He would fly over the town, over the country, which was the inspiration for his sculpting piece "Born To Fly," which will be displayed at the funeral. He is now flying as he wishes; flying wherever he wishes to go.

In life, Blair was also a noted "Kitemaster." He and son Keith would give stunt kite demonstrations for local elementary schools. The entire school would come out and watch the show of two strings of 6 "stacks" of kites performing acrobatics, complete with a "crashing finale."

One of his scouting adventures was a "frostbite" outing behind the HP building in Pennsylvania. It was so cold that the eggs froze solid and all the scouts wanted to go home, but Blair gave them the "be prepared" and "tough it out" speech, rallied the troops, they thawed the eggs and had an omelet for breakfast-a great time, and a story to share for the rest of their lives.

Always game for an adventure, Blair was also a noted motorcycle enthusiast.

Blair is survived by loving wife Sara, his five sons, Kirtis, Ken, Kyle, Keith and Kris, and his seven grand-children, as well as his sisters Kathy and Colleen.

A viewing will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, April 10, 2012 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of Loveland located at 1445 West 28th Street. Services will follow at 12 p.m., also at the church. Burial will follow at 1:30 p.m. at the Loveland Burial Park on the eastside. A luncheon will follow the burial. Flowers or contributions to Blair's favorite charity " The Loveland Artists' Charitable Fund".