Family, friends salute fallen pilot
Stanley icon died in mountain crash
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
Dia Terese, the widow of Bob Danner, speaks Saturday in Stanley to family and friends at a memorial service for the backcountry pilot who died Sept. 13. Photo by Willy Cook
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Judging solely by the number of people who attended Bob Danner?s memorial service Saturday in Stanley, one can only conclude that the renowned backcountry pilot was an exceptional person.
Danner died Monday, Sept. 13, when the small plane he was flying crashed near the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. He was 63.
Danner had been the owner of Stanley Air Taxi, and for decades he flew float boaters into the Middle Fork and hunters into remote airstrips of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and Central Idaho highlands.
Despite the cool and rainy weather on Saturday, about a thousand people crammed into a Stanley Air Taxi hangar and adjacent large white tent to pay their respects. From a podium at the front of the crowd, family members expressed their sorrow at his passing and joy at having shared in his life.
?It?s really hard to believe the number of friends that this man had,? said older brother Chuck Danner.
Danner said that was due partly to his brother Bob?s willingness to help people wherever and whenever they needed it.
?It didn?t matter what time of the day it was, what time of the night it was, he was there.?
Danner said his family moved to Stanley from Twin Falls when his brother was 3 and a half years old.
?For him, it was an immediate and long-lasting love affair,? he said. ?Even at an early age, Bob was enthralled by the mountains and the streams.?
He said the family moved to Reno while Bob was still young, but that they continued spending summers in Stanley, where Bob took his first plane ride.
?It was instantly a love that lasted the rest of his life,? Danner said.
So much so, he said, that Bob soon went to work helping to build the Stanley airport.
Bob Danner?s son, David Danner, said Saturday?s rain was appropriate for the memorial service of a man who lived and died by the weather.
However, he said, ?I know he had a great life. He did what he wanted to do, and I think we always knew that this was the way he?d probably go.?
David Danner told several stories about life with his outdoors-savvy father, including one of a day when he and a couple of friends were in a remote spot elk hunting. He said they were dressed in camouflage clothes and moving quietly, presuming they were well hidden from the elk. He said they heard the rumble of an approaching plane engine, looked up and saw his father flying over, tipping his wings to say hello.
David Danner said his 16-year-old son, Robert Danner II, is in the process of obtaining his flying license.
?I have great hopes that Bob Danner will be flying around this valley again,? he said.
For his part, young Bob Danner said, ?My grandpa was probably the best person I have ever known. He was my hero.?
Bob Danner?s widow, Dia Terese, came to the podium wearing an Amilia Earhart-style white flying outfit and a smile. She carried a large, and somewhat ungainly, potted plant. She said the plant was one she had thrown out numerous times when it appeared to be dying, but that Bob had always rescued it and brought it back to life.
?That?s what he did,? she said. ?He turned ugliness into beauty. When my ugliness came out, he just kept coming back and forgiving me, and making me better. I learned about love from this man.?
?Love each other as much as you can, even when you don?t feel like it.?
