Joseph Hans Kubik

Joseph Hans Kubik, 52, Dickinson, died April 13, 2002, in a Rochester, Minn., hospice, awake until just before he stopped breathing, with his fiancee Judy Simpson and his son, Hans, by his side. His remains will be cremated. A celebration of his life and spirit will be held at 3 p.m. MDT Friday at Travelodge Motel, Dickinson. All friends are invited.

Born on the night the St. Charles Hotel burned in Dickinson, Jan. 31, 1950, Joe Kubik was an attorney with a heart who established his practice -- Kubik, Bogner, Ridl and Selinger -- with childhood friends. A graduate of Dickinson High School where his fiery teenage pranks are legend, he received his degree in law from the University of North Dakota.

He farmed the family land for a time, traveled widely throughout his beloved West River country of Dakota working in county courthouses on oil and gas leases, and served several terms as the state's attorney for Dunn County. Throughout his life, especially after learning of his terminal illness, Joe Kubik lived the spirit of Robert Browning's poem, "Prospice":

Fear death? . . . .

No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers

The heroes of old,

Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad arrears

Of pain, darkness and cold.

For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,

The black minute's at end,

And the elements' rage, the friend-voices that rave,

Shall dwindle, shall blend,

Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,

Then a light, then thy breast,

O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,

And with God be the rest.

Just before his return to Rochester for treatment in March 2002, Joe moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., to spend the rest of his life with his fiancee, Judy Simpson.

Joe's spirit survives in his four children, Tanya (Colin) Strathman and (Joseph) Hans Kubik, both of St. Paul, Minn., Lauren (David) Stockert, Madison, Wis., and Ian Kubik, Dickinson; and Judy's children, Briana (Michael) Tiemann, Grand Forks, and Christopher Soine, Aurora, Colo.

Joe was preceded in death by his father, Alfons, who made many trips to the farm riding in the passenger side of the pickup driven by Joe, so deftly that Alfons would chant all the way, "Easy, Joe, easy."

He is remembered by his mother, Dorothy, Dickinson; his brothers, Donald (Joy), St. Paul, Minn., and David (Sue), Florissaint, Mo.; his sisters, Delores (Wayne) Huss, Northglenn, Colo., Leslie (Everett) Albers, Bismarck, and Janet Kubik Bleth, Dickinson; and his former wives and good friends, Mary McNaughton, St. Paul, Minn., and Kris Bergerud, Dickinson. An uncle of 10 and granduncle of one, Joe loved to cook for large gatherings of the family.

He loved to hunt, read (especially history), watch old movies, which he commented upon with great humor; and offer his homespun wisdom ,jokes and views on the world at the gathering of a clan that embraced anyone who loved life and was eager to live each day to the fullest. He went peacefully, but not gently into the good night:

I was ever a fighter, so --

one fight more,

The best and the last!