Man builds coffins for his brothers

[Mikey]

RIVERSIDE:
Man builds coffins for his brothers
















MARK ZALESKI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Danny Huseman, right, is the older brother of
well known off-road racer Rick Huseman, who died in a plane crash with his
brother Jeff . Danny was among the many friends and family who helped built
interment vessels for his brothers.







BY LESLIE PARRILLA

STAFF WRITER

lparrilla@pe.com

Published: 25 October 2011
07:35 PM











A

Text Size









Related

• [b]WEBLINK [/b]Related link: Racers, fans mourn
  Rick Huseman (Oct. 17, 2011)
  
• [b]WEBLINK [/b]Video: Rick Huseman career
  highlights (Oct. 17, 2011)
  
• [b]WEBLINK [/b]Photos: Rick Huseman's career
  (Oct. 17, 2011)
  
• [b]WEBLINK [/b]Related link: Memorial race,
  fundraiser set to honor Huseman (Oct. 20, 2011)
  

@import "http://diacache.daylife.com/_static/release-52678/v2/css/daylife/thickbox.css";











The idea of designing and building coffins for his two brothers who died in a
plane crash earlier this month originally seemed odd to Danny Huseman.

When telling his parents and wife what he was thinking, he didn’t expect the
casket building project to take shape so quickly.

“It turned into doing one last thing for my brother instead of saving money,”
Huseman, 41, said. “We were all talking about stuff at my mom and dad’s. I was
like, man, too bad I just couldn’t make some caskets and save you a ton of
money. I was just throwing it out there and thought it was kinda weird and
everybody just jumped on it.”

For six days, friends and family streamed in and out of his home workshop in
Riverside, laboring from early morning to late evening, welding steel panels and
attaching tubing to carbon fiber trim.

His wife researched legal requirements and burialrestrictions for caskets, and in the end, he became the project manager
on what would be the last set of blueprints he designed for his well-known
off-road racing brother, Rick Huseman, reigning champion of Lucas Oil Off-Road
Racing Series.

Danny Huseman’s brothers were killed the afternoon of Oct. 16 when the
Beechcraft Bonanza single-engine plane they were in had engine trouble and
crashed near Barstow. Rick Huseman, 38, Jeff Huseman, 26, and pilot Danny Hicks
all died in the crash.

The trio were reportedly in Las Vegas for a motocross race sponsored by
Monster Energy, the Corona-based company that was one of Huseman’s corporate
racing partners.

Off-roading enthusiasts and sponsors mourned the losses, raising more than
$55,000 to help Rick Huseman’s widow, Michelle, and his 1-year-old son, Little
Ricky. He was described as a quiet, family man — until it came time to race.
When he got into a truck, he became one of the best at his sport.

The Huseman family supported him in developing that talent, and Danny
designed the trucks Rick raced.

“I was just now ordering parts to build a truck for Ricky,” said Danny, who
is a fabricator, designer, engineer and consultant.

He tried to build the coffins he calls “interment vessels,” with the same
precision he built his brother’s racing trucks.

“We always did everything top notch. Everything had to be perfect,” he said.
“I did some sketches of what I was thinking. I kind of showed it to a few
people, but I’ve never done this before, so I kind of did it on the fly. It
really is pretty simple. We just built it as we went.”

The project became a mission where everyone who walked in carried parts,
tools or food, united for a single purpose, to give Rick and Jeff one last gift.
They all understood the pain one another carried, Danny said.

“The whole experience was just awesome, because it wasn’t just the people who
helped fabricate, it was the people bringing the food. Everybody missed Ricky
and they knew what I was going through,” he said.

They were a team, just like the brothers had been when they were alive, one
last time.

During the day, the twin steel caskets were the goal, leaving little time for
thinking about the reality of what they were building despite Rick’s racing
truck sitting several feet away from his coffin.

“If you actually stopped and thought about it, it was horrible. But we had a
job to do and we did it. I didn’t have time to think about ‘Oh, my brothers died
and he’s going to be in there,” Danny said.

But late at night, in the quiet, reality would seep in.

“That was pretty bad. I miss my brothers horribly,” he said Tuesday while
preparing to take the coffins out of his workshop to the funeral home, Olivewood
Memorial Park in Riverside.

“I got to do one last thing for my brother. It was just one last chassis that
I built for him,” he said.

What: Funeral for Jeff and Rick Huseman

When: 10 a.m. today

Where: Harvest Christian Fellowship church, 6115 Arlington Ave.

Donations: Rick Huseman Memorial Fund, Premier Service Bank, 3637 Arlington
Ave., Riversides

Fundraiser: Rick Huseman Memorial Race, 6 p.m. Thursday at PolePosition Raceway in Corona, 1594 E. Bentley Drive; silent and live
auctions, indoor skating, food and drink, professional off-road racers including
Kyle LeDeuc, Rob Maccachren and Ken Block.