Michael James Korrell, age 51, died as a result of metastatic head and neck cancer and entered heaven on July 20, 2008. Michael accepted Jesus as his personal savior soon after his diagnosis of cancer. He was mentored and nurtured by Paul and Patti Gifford and was baptized by Brad Allen, witnessed by friends and family on August 14th, 2004.


Michael was born May 3, 1957 on his mothers birthday in Cheyenne Wells, CO, to Gordon and Rita Korrell. He attended twelve years of school in Cheyenne Wells, graduating of the Class of 1975. He attended two years of college at Aims Community College in Greely, CO. Michael left college to work in the oil field on work-over rigs and later a tool pusher continuing this work until 1982. He began working for the Town of Cheyenne Wells in 1982 and worked up until two weeks before his death.


Michael married Charlene Woelk of Eads in 1982 and together they had two children, Caleb born in 1984 and Carli born in 1987. Michael enjoyed his children teaching them how to handle guns, shoot and hunt; taking them deer hunting annually. Camouflage was purchased for the entire family to wear. In 2002 Michael was given the opportunity to be a coaching assistant with the high school football team Calebs Senior year of high school. Michael enjoyed this immensely and continued to be an assistant through the 2007 football season, looking forward to the 2008 season. His main job was medic and helped many of the players with their injuries not to mention just becoming buds with them. Michael became interested in the Tigerette Dance team when Carli became a member, although he was always interested in the dance team members as potential dates as he was growing up. He had several memorable events with Carli attending two national dance championships in Orlando, FL. He loved Disney World and was always up for a trip. The last dance championship he attended was this past year with the team and once again had a wonderful time. He had lots of laughs and many memories.


Michael had a love for water skiing, boating, rock n roll music, fast cars and guns. He liked to blow stuff up. He was instrumental with the firemen hosting the machine gun shoot. It was an event he couldnt miss. He recruited for the shoot year round and talked to people about it wherever he went. He was a member of the fire department for which he was very enthusiastic, serving as the safety officer for many years and retired this year after 20 years of service. He was also an EMT-I and worked for several years on the ambulance as a volunteer. He was very good as an EMT and loved the service and the adrenalin rush of getting the patient wherever they needed fast. Michael was a hard worker having two side businesses of a tree cutting service partnering with Steve Benge and a lawn business partnering with his family. Caleb, Carli and Char hated the power raking part, but did the work anyway because dad said so. He was a talented man who could fix just about anything and knew lots of stuff. Television was a big part of Michaels evenings and nights, making it rather hard for Char to sleep through gun battles he watched on the history and military channels.


Michaels most challenging accomplishment was his courageous battle with metastatic head and neck cancer. He was diagnosed in March of 2003 and underwent radical surgery for removal of the tumors followed by radiation. A year later chemotherapy was initiated. Michael and Char traveled to Houston, TX for treatment at MD Anderson. Chemotherapy was continued in Denver, CO and they also traveled to Boulder, CO for alternative treatments to boost his immune system. They traveled to Mexico in February of this year for another type of alternative treatment. Michael was a trooper to put up with all of Chars concoctions to cure his cancer. He took some pretty nasty stuff for her all in the name of a cure. Char was determined she would find something to cure him. She and her parents made black walnut juice for him to drink. Not wanting him to take this himself, they all took the stuff. After that, Michael compared everything to the black walnut juice and nothing was that bad. Char continued her quest to save him this past month by making him ingest 30 barley pills a day. He finally said thats enough, Im finished. Char believes strongly that he was with us as long as he was because of Gods will and the minerals, vitamins and herbs he supplemented. Michael was not just a patient to his physicians, he became friends with them. He and Char fell in love with his ICU nurse Nancy and her family and made sure they had a breakfast or dinner date almost every time they were in Denver. Michael was an encouragement and witness to many people on his journey and made wonderful lifelong friends along the way.


Michael is survived by his wife Charlene, son Caleb and daughter Carli; sister Charlotte and Brother-in-law Jerry Frazzini of Denver; nephew Kraig Lowe of Denver; aunts and uncles Bill and Joyce Colvin of Kit Carson, Kevin and Vicki Baker of Rantoul, IL, Gertrude Haug of Denver, CO and Bob and Hazel Korrell of Cheyenne, WY. Numerous cousins, other relatives and many friends survive him. He was preceded in death by parents Gordon and Rita Korrell, grandparents William and Urtle Alderson, Mervin and Berdilla Korrell, uncles William Alderson , Jr. Charles Korrell, Harry Korrell, aunts Dora Barnett,


Michael and his family want to thank you all for your friendship, generosity, love, prayers, compassion and kindness throughout our struggles.


Funeral services were held on Friday July 25, 2008 at the Cheyenne Wells High School Auditorium in Cheyenne Wells, CO with burial following at the Sheridan Lake Cemetery.


Memorial funds have been established in Michaels name for the Cheyenne Wells Gun Club and the Sheridan Lake Bible Church.