From
The Houston Chronicle
Hundreds of friends and family of slain NASA engineer David Beverly turned out today to Johnson Space Center to pay tribute to their slain colleague, who was fatally shot last Friday by a coworker.
They gathered at mid-morning in the space center's main auditorium to pay their respects to a 62-year-old colleague, who was as much at home roaring off across country on one of his many motorcycles as he was trouble-shooting electronics gear aboard the space shuttle or the international space station.
"My wish is that today be a day of joy," his wife Linda told the gathering "If you leave here without laughing. We have done the wrong thing to celebrate this man and who he was."
Carefully displayed at the memorial was one of Beverly's revered motorcycles, a streamlined, red and black Ducati. A succession of still photographs chronicled the couple's motorcycle travels, from Cape Canaveral and Key West, Fla., to Maine and Arizona. Within two strides, was a portrait, showing a large but gentle man, his appearance wizened by graying hair and beard.
When he wasn't working or riding, Beverly stepped from his waterfront home in San Leon to sail aboard the couple's 41-foot sailboat.
"David has such a great passion for his work for NASA and being a part of a great program." said Linda Beverly. "David's work was important, but it was the components of his life that made him a great man. His spirit and legacy live on. He often reminded those who worked for him and with him that it isn't work but our relationships with family and friends that really matters."
Beverly was gunned down inside his NASA laboratory on Friday afternoon by a disgruntled co-worker who feared he might lose his job. Even after he was shot, Beverly attempted to protect a third co-worker, Francelia "Fran" Crenshaw , 56, who was bound with duct tape but eventually rescued by police.
The gunman, William Arthur Phillips Jr ., 62, an employee of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., later turned the gun on himself, ending a standoff with Houston police that lasted more than three hours.
More than 60 of those who attended today's memorial arrived on motorcycles as members of the JSC Space Riders, a club Beverly helped to organize.
"He brought passion and commitment to everything he did," said Mike Coats , the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. "We are blessed David's passion included NASA and America's space program."
At work, one of his passion's was America's future in space. Beverly eagerly anticipate the first launch of the United States' new initiative to return explorers to the moon, said Geoff Yoder , a longtime colleague.
"When we get there, Dave will be there waiting for us," said Yoder.
As a tribute to Beverly, NASA lowered the U.S. flags at its installations across the country to half-staff for the remainder of the week.
Beverly was the posthumous recipient of a legacy award for career contributions to NASA's electrical engineering endeavors.
A flag, flown this week over NASA's Mission Control Center, was presented to Linda Beverly.
Services for Beverly will be at the Bay Area Baptist Church of League City on Thursday at 3 p.m., CDT.
The Wesley David Beverly Memorial Fund has been established by friends and co-workers at the JSC Federal Credit Union, 1330 Gemini, Houston.
mark.carreau@chron.com
