Cecil Rhodes has left the range

I regret to inform you that Cecil Rhodes has left the range.  Cecil passed away today (November 27, 2023) after a relatively short illness with CJD or Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.  Cecil was well known on this forum as CR10X, and on the Bullseye-L list earlier.  His advice was always very thoughtful, and he was able to help many of us along the way.  He was also a top-level competitor, winning the 45 caliber National Championship in 2006 among other awards, and still made time to be an excellent match director.
Funeral arrangements are pending but will be held in Beulaville, NC, where Susan and Cecil grew up.

This is very sad to hear. His writings were some of the first I read on bullseye shooting. He gave a lot to people he didn’t know.

Hat in hand, my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Very sad, he will be greatly missed!

I met him at a match a year or so ago. He was a very nice and helpful person. I have read many of his posts and found them interesting and helpful. 

Rush

That is sad news. I met him at Perry one year and he was nice to talk to. His contribution to this forum and our sport in general will be missed. My prayers are with his family.

John

I was glad to have met him face to face as well as getting to know him on the forum.  He came to visit and pick up some gear from me.  Super nice and friendly.

He was a good resource for the forum and he didn’t take any BS either!  I had to ask him to stop taking down his posts when he would get ticked off at certain replies from noobs that were too good to take a lesson from a High Master.  

He will be missed, but he left behind 1777 posts, many of which are invaluable advice.

  https://www.bullseyeforum.net/spa/u471

I am sad to hear that Cecil passed.  He was always helpful to many and I always appreciated his input to my inane thoughts.  My condolences to his family.  He will be missed here. We are diminished.

Cecil was the long-time match director at Sir Walter Gun Club in Creedmoor, NC.  He was a tremendous competitor, a great coach, and helpful to anyone who asked a sincere question.  He was a good man and we're unlikely to see his like again anytime soon.  We are diminished by his passing.

What a great competitor and a great communicator. So many times he stepped into a seemingly complex topic and made it simple. I've had many Aha! moments reading his posts.

Now I need to go dry fire for 10 minutes.

This is such sad news.
Even though we’d never met, Cecil responded to several questions from me since i joined the forum. His replies were extremely helpful. As others have said, i learned much from reading his posts.
We are truly lessened by his passing.
Prayers for his family.

OMG!  I lost another friend!  Huge loss for BE community!  Cecil was a straight shooter in all aspects - whether expressing opinion verbally / in writing or imprinting it on target, he was always on X!

We all miss you!  RIP!

AP

Blown away and sorry to hear this. Thank you for taking the time to post.

A terrible loss to the shooting sports and to the world. He will be missed dearly. Cecil's love of the sport was evident in his writing and his willingness to share knowledge with anyone, marksman or master. His sense of humor was as sharp as his aim. And he gave up his own free time to put on a great match at Sir Walter, month after month.

I will never forget what he told me about visual attention to the gun/sights. He said that when he was really shooting well, he saw flame in the chamber through the ejector slot cut in the back of the 1911 slide. I said something dumb like he might be pulling my leg and he swiftly corrected me that no, he was dead serious. I'll keep looking for that fire on every shot, Cecil.

We lost a great one.

Gut-wrenching. I've known Cecil for more than a quarter century. We first met at Bristol, when he and I were relatively new shooters. I was fortunate to get to shoot by him at Canton again in 2019. Great shooter and a true asset to Bullseye. What an awful disease. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

During my first year shooting 2700 matches in 2004, fellow shooters from our club suggested going to Camp Perry. What a great experience! When we shot the team matches, I noticed a couple of shooters next to our firing point analyzing a 100-6x rapid fire target for the 45 match as if what could be improved. In 2007, I had the good fortune to be the hut mate to one of the North Carolina shooters, Clark Hardesty. It was then after meeting most of the North Carolina shooters that the 100-6x target was Grayson Palmer's and Cecil had offered insights. The bar for shooting improvement was set very high and that was my everlasting memory of Cecil.

I will miss Cecil's comments also when I posted questions on the forum he would always have a suggestion for my marksman mind. He was patient with me and even PM'd me with some comments to help me. Like a lot of the Masters and Highmasters I've met here and at matches I wish I could have lived closer to you all.
 Wes said that CJD was terrible, I can say the same, my Mother-in-law died from it also. I truly thought she had Mad Cow Disease which is similar.
 One of the projects he participated in was a webinar Skype type program that Cecil, Grayson Palmer, Hardesty and other HMs and Ms were on a panel with Willie Trowel and you could ask questions. It was really good. 
 I have missed Cecils comments this past year. R.I.P.
Stan

I'll really miss Cecil's wisdom about the sport of bullseye pistol shooting and great way of imparting it. May God have mercy on his soul.

Cecil was one of the very first people I spoke with at my first match. A great shooter with lots of wisdom to share. He will be missed.

Cecil is a great scholar and teacher of the bullseye discipline.  I first met him in 1998 at Sir Walter Gun Club and he was training to be a bullseye competitor.   Then he was shooting strong Expert scores and was not going to shoot a match until he was ready.  I could already see that he was a methodical person with a drive for excellence.  In 1999, we rode together for his first Camp Perry experience.  What he learned from me?  Don't eat the Lake Erie perch!  I got very ill and he thought I was not going to make it.  

Locally he is remembered for his bullseye knowledge and witty sayings.  Also, as a long-time and organized match director at Sir Walter.  One of the late local shooters said that the best part of Camp Perry was having the casual group discussions after dinner at the NC huts, with fine drinks, about shooting techniques.  Cecil gave detailed advice that was easily understood.  

We will miss you, Cecil.  We will meet again to hear some new Cecilisms!

I am very sorry to hear this. I always looked for, enjoyed and learned from his posts.

Article in Shooting Sports USA about him:

https://www.ssusa.org/content/legends-cecil-rhodes-1956-2023/#:~:text=With%20great%20sadness%2C%20we%20share,famous%20for%20mentoring%20new%20shooters.&text=The%20shooting%20sports%20community%20mourns,Monday%2C%20November%2027%2C%202023.

After reading 16 pages of quips, and realizing many I recall are not even posted, one appreciates what a great resource and source of humor Cecil contributed.  Losing Phil and Cecil in one year totally blows.  And I'm sure there were many others I didn't know who I'll miss without knowing it.  Its a sport where the masters and their insight never grows old.  They just suddenly leave the range.  I wish all the older masters - the names we all know who don't actively participate - WOULD PARTICIPATE.  All the rest of us love to read whatever you have to say.