WAKARUSA, Kan. – Raleigh Gene Trembly was born Nov. 22, 1947, in Chanute, Kan. He was the oldest son of Gene and Alice.

The white-blonde-haired little boy was curious from the start and always on the go. He became the older brother of Randy and Tisha. The family eventually moved to the town of Wellington, in southern Kansas. He was known for being the kid to read every book in his school library – literally every book. He was involved in Boy Scouts, and there is a story about a mysterious fire that happened while on a campout and the trees that were replanted by him and his fellow hooligan pyromaniacs. As a boy, he loved to be outdoors fishing and riding his bike around town.

In the ninth grade, while high up in the neighborhood treehouse, he met Elizabeth Sarchet, who was the babysitter of his little sister. Teenage romance blossomed and on the day of their high school graduation he proposed – the only hitch was when the ring was lost down on the floorboard of the VW Beetle he had fixed up and restored. They were married Dec. 19, 1965.

By this time, he was already enrolled at Logan Chiropractic College, in St. Louis, Mo. He worked nights as a janitor and went to school all day to be able to afford tuition. He even helped a professor build a deck one weekend with a promise to pass a class he struggled in. Their first child, Paula, came into the world in 1968 while he was still a student. With a young family by his side, he was able to graduate from chiropractic college in 1969, and the family decided to move to Topeka, Kan. In 1972, Peter arrived on the scene. Pamela followed in 1977.

After working for his mentor, Dr. Rex Wright, he then had practices in the hospital district of Topeka and in Carbondale, Kan., and then back to a long stent in Topeka, at 29th and Burlingame streets. In 1993, he moved his practice to become the “Country Doctor” in Wakarusa, Kan., where he practiced until retiring in 2015. Dr. Trembly was very busy at the office helping people and forming relationships that would last for many decades.

He was a member of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts and the Kansas Chiropractic Association in various leadership roles. He received many accolades, and was one of the first chiropractors to practice acupuncture in Kansas after being trained by his beloved mentor, Dr. Richard Yennie, in the early 1980s. Over 46 years, he improved the quality of life for thousands upon thousands of people.

He was handy from the start, and could fix just about any car or build just about anything. He often pulled out “just the right part” because he saved every scrap that could be used again and he could repair just about anything with a zip-tie, an old hanger, and some duct tape. He constantly had a car project he was working on, and surely adored that candy red 1972 Cadillac Eldorado convertible and his Kelly green 1971 Porche 911 Targa.

Raleigh was a member of the Wakarusa Presbyterian Church for around 50 years, often serving as an elder on the session. He could be seen every October at the ham and bean feed stirring the cast iron kettle while it simmered over the open fire in the church parking lot.

Raleigh was also an adventurer. He took several bicycling trips across the states of Kansas, Colorado, and Wisconsin. He was one of the first windsurfers in the state who also showed his skills under the Golden Gate Bridge, at the Hood River, and in Hawaii.

He was a pretty awesome grandpa who taught kids all sorts of useful things like building treehouses, how to canoe the Wakarusa River, and how to pick the perfect flavor of snow cone. He was a big softy for animals, and what were brought in as strays by his wife and children often quickly became his faithful companions. Not a day would pass that you wouldn’t see him walking one of his trusted Labradors up Jordan Road. Otherwise, you would find him in the stacks of shelves of the Topeka Public Library every single week scouring the new book section to see if there was, by chance, a book he had not yet read.

To know him was to love and adore him because he was a kind and gentle man. We are devastated and gutted to have lost him, but the stroke that he suffered late in 2019 was one thing that he just couldn’t fix or repair.

Raleigh Trembly passed away Sept. 1, 2023, at Brookside Retirement Community, Overbrook, Kan., where he had loving care for the last years of his life.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, of Wakarusa; children, Paula Salts (Scott), Topeka, Peter Trembly, Wakarusa, and Pamela Kendall (Jud), Keller, Texas; grandchildren, Joseph Salts and Courtney Salts, Topeka, and Marley, Nash, and Saylor Kendall, of Keller, Texas; great-grandchildren, Dylan Soza, Rylee Salts, Carter Salts and VaChi Triplett, all of Topeka; brother, Randy Trembly (Vicki), Topeka; sister, Tisha Toone, Kansas City; and several nieces and nephews and other family who loved him dearly.

He was preceded in death by both of his parents.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Sept. 5, 2023, at Wakarusa Presbyterian Church 10135 SW Jordan Rd, Wakarusa.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to the Wakarusa Presbyterian Church, Topeka Public Library, or the general student fund at Logan Chiropractic College. Condolences an be left at www.davidsonfuneral.com.