Nicholas Ryan Braun Obituary (1990

It is with deepest sorrow we announce that Nicholas R Braun, age 30, our beloved son, brother, relative and friend passed away on July 20, 2021. Nick was born in Placerville, Ca. and attended Cedar Springs Waldorf School, Sierra Ridge Middle School and El Dorado High School. Nick was an active boy spending most of his time outside in nature. He loved skateboarding, wake boarding, riding his BMX and dirt bikes or designing and building jumps and race tracks with his brother and friends. By the time he started high school Nick had become a talented snow boarder, racing on the varsity snow board team during his freshman year and helping the team to win the CNISSF championship title that year. Always at his happiest when he had an outlet for his creative mind, his best days were those he spent in his art, auto shop and welding classes. Through the Central Sierra ROP program he became certified in metal fabrication, welding and manufacturing. Nick applied his innate understanding of mechanics and his ability to visualize and create to other interests he had for restoring and repairing anything and everything with an engine. After school and on weekends he spent most of his free time working with the pit crew of his best friends' sprint car team at the Placerville Speedway or preparing it to win the next race. Be it cars, trucks, motorcycles, dirt bikes, boats, lawn mowers or a neighbors generator, he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of making them all work perfectly again. Nick grew up learning the electrical trade from his Dad, working as an apprentice electrician for the family business and then as an apprentice carpenter before joining the Local Laborers Union 185 to pursue a career in excavation and heavy equipment operation. He worked as a journeyman laborer and drill rig operator for both Syblon Reid General Engineering Contractors and Neil's Controlled Blasting and was quickly recognized as one of the most dedicated, willing, and hardworking young men to be called in for the extreme and difficult jobs. Already knowing his strength and strong work ethic, he had been affectionately nicknamed 'Brawnybraun', by his family, from a young age. While working for Syblon Reid, Nick had many adventurous work opportunities, including being transported underground through long, dark, water filled tunnels to work beneath the Feather River hydro-electric power plants, performing emergency repair work on the Oroville Dam main spillway in 2017 and then as project manager for the replacement of the platforms and avalanche control cannons in Meyers, Carson Pass and Truckee. Flying in helicopters from one location to another, coordinating material drops and working with his crew high up on the mountainside was an exciting challenge that suited him perfectly. Nicks' excavation and drilling work with Neil's Controlled Blasting gave him the chance to use the talent he gained from his hobby of building and racing remote control cars, flying drones, and his lifelong obsession with heavy equipment, excavation, gold mining and blasting. He was proud to be able to use those skills in completing his drilling jobs in record time. Nick also became certified to handle the explosives for the blasting projects and to perform rock scaling work on the cliffs above the California highways which led to many exciting conversations about the experiences he had on the projects he was working on, most recently the new community of Folsom Ranch. Nicks entrepreneurial spirit, creative drive and his love of exploring the mountains around him led him to start his own business, Braunbuilt Fabrication, where he specialized in off-road fabrication of custom bumpers, roll cages and complete rock crawler builds for those wanting to take on the challenges of snow wheeling and extreme rock crawling through the trails of the Rubicon and Fordyce in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the King of the Hammers off-road race in Johnson Valley. Nick was an avid explorer of his environment and was never idle for long, always seeking to experience all that he could in each moment of every single day. When he wasn't working he could be found welding, inventing some gadget or tool, a piece of equipment, planning a new project, caring for his pets, raising chickens, landscaping a yard, gardening, camping, fishing, boating, kayaking, snowmobiling, snowboarding, 4-wheeling, rock crawling, flying drones, gold panning, metal detecting, bowling, helping others with their projects or just spending time watching the Discovery and History Channel with his family, cooking a special meal with them, and celebrating the special moments in our lives. Nicks life on earth may have ended too soon but his loyal, generous, kind and loving spirit will live on in the lives and memories of all those who knew him, loved him and appreciated him for just showing up in life as who he was. Authentic and Real. Perfectly Imperfect. Nick was a kind, generous, and very loving son whose playful and adventurous spirit, smile, laughter, "I love you's" and bear hugs will be missed everyday by his parents, Christopher and Wendy Braun, best friend and older brother Justin and his wife Tabatha, his soulmate and life partner Justine Siebert, Grandparents Roy Wehr, Patricia Wehr, Paul Nielsen Sr., his Aunts and Uncles; Timothy Wehr, George and Fran Braun-Schuster, Paul and Cassandra Nielsen and their children Ella and Paul III, and his cousin Adam and wife Corinna Wilburn and their daughters Jade & Kennedy. His snuggles and their boating, kayaking and camping trips together will be missed by his beloved side kick & wingman, Ruger his dog. Nick was preceded in death by his Grandmothers, Alice Saldutti -Nielsen and Ann Blanchard -Wehr, his Aunt Jodi Wehr and Uncle Jeff Wehr. In his last selfless act on Earth, Nick made the choice to be an organ donor for others in need. He has given the gift of sight so that others may have the chance to see and experience the beauty of this world through his eyes. In memory of Nick's life, please consider a donation in his name to the Mike Rowe WORKS Foundation at mikeroweworks.org or your favorite animal charity. The family is planning a celebration of Nick's life at a future date. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other' doesn't make any sense" Rumi