Trent Russell Carlson

Trent fired up his engine on February 16th, 1967, he immediately floored it and didn’t slow down until he ran out of gas during the early morning hours of July 12th 2020. His starting line in this crazy race called life was in Brooklyn Center, MN where he joined his parents, Russell and Nila Carlson, both of whom have been waiting for him at the finish line, and his sister Deana, who is still in the race. Trent quickly figured out that the faster you go the more fun you have and never looked back. He was frequently joined by his “Brother from Another Mother” Terry, and their shenanigans have become stuff of legend within the family. There was a crazy Grateful Dead concert in Buffalo, NY and a bus driver sent from above, if you ever want to hear a fun story. His drive was always accompanied by classic rock and his love of music was pervasive throughout every aspect of his life. When he did decide to slow down a bit, Trent greatly enjoyed hunting and fishing with his Father and Grandfather in Baudette, MN. In his late teens, Trent met his future wife Christine and decided to add a passenger to the ride. They quickly did the whole “2.5 kids and a house in suburbia” that really did a number on his top speed, but he held onto his Mopar and Rock-N-Roll roots. He loved to sit his daughter Cassondra on top of his gigantic Bob Carver speaker and jam to Zep together. In the first picture of him holding his son, Jacob, he is rocking his GTX hat and 80’s mullet. He quickly realized that he could instill his love of music and muscle into his children who always begged him to “DRIVE FASTER DAD!!!!” and decided this whole family man thing might not be too bad. Much further down the road Trent became a Grandfather, though don’t you dare call him old, to Emmara, whom he adored. Though Trent had many crashes in his life, literal and figurative, in true Carlson style; he always picked himself up, dusted himself off, and kept on truckin’. After a particularly bad crash on his motorcycle, he rediscovered the Faith that was instilled in him from a young age. He found frequent comfort in his Bible and one of his favorite passages was Isaiah 57:14. Trent was a talented and accomplished mechanic (shocker, I know) who could pretty much fix anything. He had an uncanny gift for reading Garfield comics and made the best breakfast sandwiches. Trent loved to read and learn and was a seemingly endless source of random knowledge. He always told you the same stories a million times over, a trait which he passed down to his children, but you could never tell him to stop, because he was always just as excited to tell you as the first time you heard them. Later in his life Trent did slow down a bit, but that suited him just fine. His bond with Jacob was special, unbreakable, and the kind of relationship every Father hopes to have with his Son. They would do pretty much anything together, but their favorite pastimes were going to the driving range and playing endless hours of video games. His time spent with Cassondra wasn’t as frequent as they both would have liked, but a cherished ritual was to go to Good Guys Car Show together every year, just the two of them. Until Emmara showed up and was invited along. They would argue over which was better “B” bodies or “E” bodies (its “B” bodies, by the way) and always had to hunt down the ‘53 Willy’s for Trent to drool over. He enjoyed watching all sports, but baseball held a special place in his heart, and he never said no to an A’s game. Though Trent’s 53 laps with us were far too few, he jammed 500 years of excitement into every one of them. He grabbed life by its pistol grip gear shift and told it to “sit down, shut up, and hold on” because we are going on one hell of a wild ride. He died as he lived: he paved his own way, wrote his own manual, and was going to win come hell or high water. While he will be deeply missed, don’t mourn; next time you hear Led Zeppelin IV or nudge that speedometer just a tick past that 100 mark, sneak a small smile and know that Trent would be proud.

Trent Russell Carlson

February 16, 1967 - July 12, 2020