February 17, 2007
On February 8, 2007, the war in Iraq took someone who had lived a life that pursued passions in Bigfoot, dinosaurs, and “the unbelievable,” as one friend recalled.
Ross “Rocco” Clevenger (pictured above), 21, of Marsing, Idaho, was a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant, who died with two other Idaho buddies when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle in Iraq.
Today, Clevenger’s funeral will be held in the Idaho gym of the high school he attended.
In his friends’ remembrances, it is clear Clevenger shared many interests of all of us here. Here’s some of those recollections:
It’s hard to pick out one memory of Ross, he was a guy so unique every time you talked to him was a memory. What comes to mind when I think about Ross would be his creativeness and his unfailing belief in the unbelievable. Speech class in 10th would be the best example, when Ross did a speech on the existence of Bigfoot. The whole class was crying from laughter. He has been a hero of mine for awhile now; I’m glad the world views him as one too.— Amy Sullens
I remember him when we were in elementary school. You couldn’t catch him without a dinosaur in his hand.— Amie Vanek
In sixth grade, everyone would tease Ross and I, saying that we would make a good couple because we both had blond hair. The next year, using his junior high charm, we started dating. We had a lot of fun in junior high and high school and I will never forget his dinosaur run. You know what I’m talking about.— Rebekah Anderson
I remember him hardcore into dinosaurs when he was little.— Buddy Sevy
He was the ‘Dinosaur Man.’ He knew everything there was to know about them. Growing up in grade school he thought they were just the best thing since sliced bread.— Shannon Ineck
For more remembrances of Ross Clevenger, please read here.
Celebrities are not neccessarily just those that are on entertainment news day after day, when they die mysteriously in casino hotel rooms. I consider the real celebrities the people like Rocco Clevenger who deserve to be discussed and remembered for a very long time. My sympathies to his family and friends.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Bigfoot, Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Living Dinosaurs, Obituaries, Pop Culture, Sasquatch