I’ve been thinking a lot about my Dad lately. Maybe because a truck safety nonprofit has asked me to consider becoming a board member. Maybe because it’s almost Thanksgiving which reminds me of the last time I saw him two years ago. Maybe because its all so unsettled even now.

What stories can I tell you about Dad? There are so many. The biggest thing about him is that he knew about everything. You know when you’re little and you think your Dad knows everything? Well, our Dad did! He read all sorts of books and magazines and was interested in learning everything there was to know about wherever he was and whomever he was with. He traveled all over the world and never met anyone he didn’t like and admire. He was interested in different cultures, and art, and music (even though he had a tin ear). He loved science and engineering. He loved to explore; to faraway places, or to the end of the stream down the way. He wanted to understand everything and he never stopped learning.

Whenever any of us were in a quandary about something, unsure what to do, or how to fix something, or where to go next, we’d call Dad. I remember years ago my brother called me about something he was doing on his house. I didn’t really follow what the issue was, and he finally said he thought he’d just call Dad. I wondered aloud why we always called Dad for everything, and my brother said, “because he knows everything!” And I said, “what are we going to do when we can’t call Dad anymore?” There was a long silence. It was inconceivable that there would be such a time. That time happened December 23, 2004, when a tired trucker made a simple error in judgement.

Now it’s not just Dad’s family that is lost. He worked in his community and in his church. He had friends all the way back to high school, college and his days in the Army that he kept in touch with even though he had moved and lived in several places around the country. He worked at the community food bank, and on a regional Presbyterian board that recruited ministers for rural churches. He was his own church’s handyman and fixed whatever was broken for friends, neighbors, the church and his family. Everyone is lost because a tired trucker made a simple error in judgement.

You know when you are reading a good book, or watching a great movie? You want to know how it turns out. I feel like I didn’t get a chance to see how Dad turned out. I didn’t get to see him grow old. I didn’t get to give back to him all the care and support he’d given me all my years. He was seventy-five years old, but he wasn’t anywhere near old yet. He wasn’t anywhere near done yet. He was still vibrant, and interested, and interesting, and supportive. He was still our family center. Without him we are struggling to redefine our family. There is no trunk to our family tree anymore, just the branches. We aren’t sure who we are without him. But we know we are who we are BECAUSE of him. The world has changed because a tired trucker made a simple error in judgement.

For the majority of his years he worked in industry. A lot of the time he was in charge of facilities, and that included the safety of the people that worked or visited his manufacturing plants. Manufacturing plants are inherently dangerous places and he made it his job to make them as safe as they could be. If he saw something out of line, something that could make the area unsafe, he’d get angry. There were no excuses. There was no letting down guard, or letting something go that wasn’t good enough. It had to be the best, everyone was expected to perform their best. He wouldn’t stop till a problem was solved. If it had been one of us hit from behind by a tired trucker that cold dark December morning, he wouldn’t have rested until he made a difference. Well, we’re trying to make a difference. For him. Because it wasn’t just a simple error in judgement by a tired trucker.

His name was William H. Badger. But all his friends called him Bill. That meant that everyone called him Bill, because he was a friend to everyone. If you tell his story, call him Bill, because he would have been a friend to you, a helper if you needed one, someone full of information and ideas, and above all full of stories. Stories that would make you laugh and help you understand the world. Stories that we’ll remember and pass on so that more people will know the story of Bill Badger. His story didn’t end with an error in judgement by a tired trucker.