Dale Craig Aure

Dale Craig Aure died peacefully at his home in Montrose Colorado on 5/7/2021.

Dale was born to Martin C. Aure and Joy (Lundee) Aure on 12-4-46 in Flint Michigan. He attended Flint area schools and after several years working at General Motors, he headed West and never looked back.

He married his wife, Laurie (Corrado) Aure in Denver in 1978. They left Denver for the Western Slope in 1979, and that’s when the adventures started! Rarely home on weekends, they experienced every outdoor opportunity available- skiing, rafting,  fishing, boating, hunting, hiking and riding ATVs.  Over the years they made their homes in Grand Junction, Montrose, Wisconsin, Montana, and Rifle. Unable to stay away from the Western Slope, they returned to Montrose 20 years ago and have called it home since then.

Dale was a man of many talents. His working career included general contractor, owner of DCA Construction, owner of Penson TourCampers, and co-owner of a Ski-Doo Dealership. Although he enjoyed it all, his most artistically rewarding work was building custom vintage Harley Davidson motorcycles. His passion for riding and building motorcycles was lifelong. He won his first motorcycle build award in a Detroit, Michigan bike show in the mid-1970s. Several of his bike builds were featured in magazines.

In the late 1980’s, Dale built an “off the grid” home on the Uncompahgre Plateau where he & Laurie lived for an adventurous 5 years. Of necessity, snowmobiles were introduced into their lives and Dale became a certified Ski-Doo mechanic. He co-owned the local Ski-Doo dealership in the early 90s and he worked in other dealerships, in different states.

Returning to Montrose in 1999 and mostly retired, Dale started building custom Harleys and working on snowmobiles. While he snowmobiled several areas in and out of state, his heart was on Grand Mesa when the winter season started. Many hours and days were spent on the Mesa with Laurie and friends both new and old.

Summertime found them traveling via motorcycle extensively in the United States; East Coast, Canada, the southern states, Wyoming, Montana and one epic trip from Canada to Mexico on the western coastal highways-Washington State, Oregon and California all the way down to Mexico. He attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for many years, searching for vintage parts for his projects and enjoying the riding as well as looking at all the custom, and sometimes strange, bikes.

Fall season brought hunting on the Plateau, and a time to renew friendships with the regular hunting group that spent every season together for over thirty years.

Dale believed in keeping his word and expected others to as well. He felt a handshake was every bit as binding as a contract, and if he shook your hand on a deal he kept his end of the bargain.

His nickname was “Almost Perfect” and he could drive you crazy with his constant striving for perfection. However, if he was working on your machine you were glad of this trait! He was a mechanical wizard, and was known to diagnose a motor or engine problem by listening to it over the phone.

He loved his wife, mountains, hunting, riding anything with a motor, ice cream, and Colorado bluebird days.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers, Jack and Larry.

He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Laurie, his daughter Tina, sisters-in –law, brothers-in laws, many nieces, nephews, and dear friends across the country. The world will be a bit more broken without the “Fix-It” man. Ride it like you stole it, Dale. You will be missed and loved forever.

Celebration of Life will be on Friday, June 4, 2021 from 3-6pm at Montrose Event Center, 648 S. 1^st Street.  Please note address.