WAA-08 Pilots,
I want to let you know that Greg Stephenson passed away on 28 June, 2008 from respiratory failure, he was 39. He died quietly in his sleep. As you all know, he was fighting ALS and was recently starting to regain movement of his legs which was great news for him indeed even though the Doctors had never seen such improvement before.
I first "met" Greg just about the time we were looking to start collecting funds for the WAA-08 adventure. He emailed me a couple times with suggestions and thoughts on how we should handle the money and make the transactions. He appeared confident and knowledgeable as well as very friendly. He seemed like a person you could trust without even really knowing him. So I asked him if he would like to "volunteer" to be our treasurer. He was hesitant at first due to his illness but was honest and upfront about it. He said he would not accept the position if the doctors had not given him at least 2-4 years to live. I said that was OK with me and he accepted the position. Immediately he took control and started to make it happen. He set up the PayPal account, linked them with a savings account so it could be verified and set up a WAA-08 email account. He was on top of things and I never had to ask him to do anything a second time. Usually he was one step ahead of me before I had the chance to either email him or call him on the phone about a particular item.
Greg also had the wonderful idea to create certificates that we could give to our pilots and sponsors which I thought was a wonderful idea. He was always pleasant and willing to help in anyway he could and was very dedicated to the Wings Across America 2008 adventure. I felt really bad for him when WAA-08 #1 flew away. He called me to tell me what happened and was very apologetic about the plane being lost. I told him not to worry about it and we'll get another one and press on. Greg worked tirelessly to discover the cause of the fly-away to make sure no one else had the same problem. And you know what? I bet we never will.
We will certainly miss his energy, enthusiasm, humor, and willingness to help no matter how hard he had to work at something. To me it seemed he never let his illness get the better of him even though he knew deep down, his life was coming to an end. He was a very brave sole indeed and I for one am a better person for knowing him for just the short time I did.
I spoke to Greg's Mom Sybil and she said that if we could do anything we could make a donation to the MDA ALS research in Greg's name; he would have appreciated it very much.
Below is the link:
Just click on the "Make a Donation" bar in yellow. Once on that page, you will see " Would you like this gift to be in memory or in honor of someone or mark a special occasion?" C lick the Yes bubble and it will bring up a place to put Greg's name. His full name was Greg Stephenson.
Calm winds my friend, you will be missed.
Frank Geisler
WAA-08 Coordinator
Anyone who would like to have a comment or story posted, please get it to me and I will add it here for everyone to see.
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