I thought I would take a moment as we near the end of Highpower Appreciation month to say a few words about our friend Konrad Powers. We lost Konrad late last year at the young age of 54. Konrad’s death is a terrible loss for his family and friends, we think of his wife and son often and pray for their comfort in this time. Konrad’s impact, however, extended much further through his extended family in the Highpower community.
Konrad loved Service Rifle shooting. This love drove him not only to succeed as a shooter but also drove him to do all he could to improve the sport. As a match director he strove to run the very best match he could and ensured that everyone who attended one of his matches had the very best experience that they could.
When he saw the need for a good statistical office program, he used his formidable programing skills and developed one that he has freely distributed to match directors across the country. As team captain of the Illinois Gold team, Konrad worked hard to ensure that Illinois was well represented at the National Matches, and the results proved this out. His desire to help encourage more participation at matches resulted in Konrad developing a shooter ranking system to rank shooters who competed in Illinois Matches. This system uses numerous metrics such as score, placing in the match, number of matches shot, placing against other ranked shooters, and more to give a ranking of all shooters who have shot in his tournaments.
A desire to share his Highpower journey led Konrad to publish his online Highpower Journal. On Konrad's Highpower Rifle Site he listed all his match results as well as his comments on his performance. Whether good, bad, or ugly, he put it out for all to see. More recently Konrad began a YouTube channel. Here he dove into all sorts of topics of interest to the Service Rifle shooter from basics such as the course of fire, to more advanced subjects such as using electronic training devices.
All these things and more Konrad did out of his love for the sport, never asking for anything in return other than for you to come out and shoot a match and have fun.
As our team captain, Konrad lived for the NTT match. He made sure that all we had to do was be at our target at 5:30 AM. We could be assured that he had everything else handled until that last shot was fired at 600 yards. Having the pleasure of coaching this team for the last 28 years is something I will always be grateful for, it has truly been an honor.
While Konrad never had any official capacity here at White Oak, he has long been on our unofficial Board of Directors, as well as a member of the WOA Brain Trust. When I have some geometric problem I am trying to figure out for a program or some other numbers problem, I knew I could count on Konrad to figure it out. And there is no new product that did not get run past him and the Brain Trust before being introduced. And likely Konrad test fired it for a year first, many times without him even knowing it. His support, encouragement, unwavering trust, and praise of what we do here is a debt I could never repay.
Konrad is going to be sorely missed here in Illinois. His passion, sense of humor, even temperament, and commitment to the sport has made Highpower Shooting what it is here in Illinois for the last 20 years.
More personally, Konrad has been a very dear friend for the last 28 years or so. In the lows, you could count on him to have an encouraging word, in the highs, he would always be truly happy for you, but also make sure you stayed grounded if you start getting too full of yourself. One thing which was a constant source of frustration for Konrad was the number of people who would walk up to him and call him John. Personally, I think this is why he started the YouTube channel, so everyone could see how much better looking he was than me.
In our time here on this earth we are fortunate if we have a handful of people in our lives that make us better people and our lives fuller for having known them. Konrad was one of those people for myself and so many others who knew him. We are diminished.
John Holliger