We both went to work for Empire Airlines, the company that was born from Valley Aircraft, but neither of us lasted there for more than a few years. Paul Quackenbush, the entrepreneur that jump-started the airline into existence, liked to cut a lot of corners. Pete and I and several other pilots were corners that got in Quackenbush's way to a fast buck.
Pete went back to the trade he knew. He was a jeweler. He still loved to fly and maintained a Cessna 150 for several years. I gradually lost track of him except to exchange greeting cards each year.
Pete always had a strong sense of right and wrong. Not the jot and tittle kind, but the important kind that has to do with relationships between people on a variety of levels.
I was shocked when I read of his death in the paper recently. The funeral was private and the date for it was not announced. A couple of days later the paper said that police considered his death a suicide. I couldn't believe it. But when I talked to a lifelong friend of Pete's, he told me that Pete had been suffering sessions of deep depression for several months.
Peter Daniels, you're a friend of mine, and may you rest in the peace and security of God's love forever.
