Hugh was the first-born of Hugh and Gretchen Kellenberger’s seven children and moved from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin to Sacramento, California as a young boy. He was a Class of 1969 graduate of Cordova High School. He was a machinist apprentice at Southern Pacific Railroad before beginning a career as a machinist at Aerojet.
On Christmas Eve in 1980 he met his sister Cathy’s roommate. The next day he took her to the beach. He and Karen were married on May 10, 1981, a romance that carried them the rest of their lives. They had three children of their own — Hugh, Grant and Rebecca — and moved to North Carolina in 1993. He worked at Honeywell in Rocky Mount, North Carolina before retirement.
He loved to hunt deer in Wyoming, fish in the Pacific Ocean near Bodega Bay and work with his hands in his expansive workshop. In his later years, he tended to his garden and doted on his five grandchildren — Hunter, Ian, Tyler, Logan and Aubrie. His sixth-grade teacher remarked on a report card that he could become angry when he did not get his way, and while that trait never quite went away, it hid the kind of loving soul that also carefully stored every card his family ever gave him.
Hugh was preceded in death by his father, Hugh and mother, Gretchen. He is survived by his wife, Karen; his son, Hugh, daughter-in-law, Shannon and grandsons, Hunter, Ian and Logan; son, Grant, and grandson, Tyler; daughter, Rebecca and granddaughter, Aubrie; five brothers, Mike, Pat, Charlie, Scott and Terry, sister, Cathy, and their families.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks you to pay it forward.
Arrangements by Brown-Wynne, Saint Mary's Street, Raleigh.
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