(RNN) - Jim “Mad Dog” Sellers saw his first tornado in September of 1975 and his last one 30 years later.
He died on Tuesday in Springfield, MO. His dying wish: To have his ashes launched into a tornado by his friends, the “Outlaw Chasers.”
“That’ll be fun,” Sellers wrote in the final line of his obituary.
He loved to have fun. He played softball and even hit a few homers, though he admits to making a lot more outs.
“I had a few tryouts with the Reds, Phillies and Cardinals. I was either too drunk or too hung over to do much good. But I had fun,” Sellers wrote.
Even so, storms and storm chasing were Sellers’ first love. He was a regional coordinator for the National Weather Service SKYWARN program, an amateur radio operator and gave several presentations on emergency communication.
The love he had for fun and weather could never match the love he had for his family.
“My mom and dad, grandma, granny, uncle Tiny, aunt Ida, all my in-laws, they all taught me so much,” Sellers wrote.
Sellers is survived by his son David, wife Amanda, daughter Lindsay and her wife Danielle and four grandkids.
Sellers said he enjoyed 50 years of OK health. It took a turn for the worst when he became too sick to work in 2006. Doctors only gave him two more years to live.
He lasted 12 more.
“I fooled that son-of-a-gun HEE HEE,” Sellers wrote.
He suffered from a heart condition that would ultimately cost him his life.
He was 64.
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