Eugene Trofim Verin “Piggy,” 75, died Dec. 19, 2023, of complications of esophageal cancer. Piggy was born in Upstate New York on Feb. 13, 1948, but moved to Arizona for work after he left the Army. He settled in Winslow, working in forestry and eventually for the Santa Fe Railroad until he retired.
In that Army stint, he was a military policeman stateside during the Vietnam War, or a “Pig” as many detainees referred to them. In his typical calming manner, he asked to be called Piggy to deflect and disarm anyone who tried to use that name as an epithet. It worked so well that he was much more comfortable inside the stockade than on its walls.
He was a man of large stature and large appetites (maybe an additional allusion to “Pig”). Before his illness, his dinner menus were the stuff of legend to his many friends and relatives, not only for their size but for their spiciness. His love for peppers and capsaicin was legendary. His appetites also involved collecting. Indigenous art, old/vintage industrial tools, books and periodicals of spectacular spectra, pieces of twisted and gigantic wood, 4WD vehicles of distant and often dubious vintages, political slogan T-shirts, old forestry implements that looked more like torture devices, headbands of rainbow hues, and a circle of interesting and ferocious friends.
Piggy also closely observed and loved nature, leading us to appreciate its beauty also. A side trip onto a pasture resulted in us lying among cow patties picking (tiny) rubies, emeralds and garnets from the mounds of anthill ejecta. A hike into the Grand Canyon had us waking to the feather breath of bats wings as they swept insects from a tiny stream. Another hike would leave us walking the ruins of an ancient settlement far off the beaten track, pottery and basket fragments still in place (and left as we found them – he was also a stickler for taking nothing but photos and memories). And yet another hike led up into Reavis Ranch in the Superstitions where we shared the branch-breaking abundance of apples with barking deer and foot-long centipedes.
Piggy was also known widely for his Labor Day Pig Roast, which often attracted more than 100 guests of varying ages and sobriety. His recipe for the actual Roast Pig started with ‘1 large backhoe, 2 cords of hardwood.’
Piggy is survived by his wife, Alicia; her children, Chris and Rachel, and seven grandchildren; his sister, Sylvia and her children Kunyi and Harry; and by many, many friends and acquaintances all of whom have been enriched by knowing this bearhug of a man. We wish him “Happy Trails” on his adventures in the afterlife, as he wished us so many times. We’re sure his spirit will be at the next Labor Day Circle of Friends picnic.
