It is not enough to call Terry Barker an aviation enthusiast.
This was a man who got his pilot’s license at 20 years old and never looked back, who proposed to his girlfriend midflight, who was offered his dream job with American Airlines on his birthday — and who was so sure it was too good to be true that he hung up. This was a man who volunteered to pilot warbirds, all the while refurbishing his own plane.
Terry Barker was a man who died doing the very thing he lived for: flying.
Barker, 67, alongside five others, died in a midair collision Saturday during the Commemorative Air Force’s Wings Over Dallas show. The crash involved two World War II-era planes — a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra. One pilot was in the P-63, while Barker and the other four were in the B-17.
No one on the ground was hurt. The cause of the crash is under investigation, and officials have said it could be 12 to 18 months before a final report is released. A preliminary report could be available in four to six weeks.
The Commemorative Air Force identified the other men who died as Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5″ Michels, Dan Ragan, Len Root and Curt Rowe.
In the first service honoring the six men, more than 100 people gathered Thursday evening for a candlelit vigil in front of Keller Town Hall to pay tribute to Barker — a husband, father, grandfather, veteran and former Keller city council member.
“As he ascended on that November day, Terry and all those with him were doing what they loved: spending time in the air, celebrating the achievements of human flight design and technology,” Kyle Roberson, pastor of care and support at White’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake, said in an opening prayer. Addressing God, he added:
“And as they climbed through the clouds, they just continued their journeys and ascended straight to you.”
‘Service above self’
A Veterans Day display of 1,776 American flags was supposed to be taken down Sunday, but — for Barker — they remained standing Thursday, a fitting background to a framed portrait, a wreath adorned with red and white roses, and a banner reading “In memory of a truthful servant of Keller.”
Barker served Keller as a member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission from 1995 to 1999, followed by two terms on the Keller City Council from 1999 to 2003.
“It was always about service above self,” said Keller’s mayor, Armin Mizani. “You saw it through his career, but you saw it through the type of person he was and through his actions.”
Well before his time on the council, Barker served in the Army as a helicopter pilot from 1975 to 1978 at Fort Bragg, N.C., according to his obituary. It was during that time he earned his fixed-wing pilot’s license, and following his honorable discharge he enrolled in the aviation program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
Barker was offered a job as a flight engineer at American Airlines on his 29th birthday in August 1984. He remained with the airline for 36 years, retiring in 2020.
‘An ocean of grief and sorrow’
John Baker, a former American Airlines colleague and friend of 20 years, said the two met while based out of DFW International Airport, where both men were check airmen instructor pilots. Baker said Barker joined the Commemorative Air Force shortly before retirement, and served the organization both as a volunteer pilot and as maintenance officer for its Gulf Coast Wing.
“We are devastated — the family and friends, the Keller community, the American Airlines community, the aviation community,” Baker said. “He was genuinely respected as a great colleague, and an all-around great guy. We were blessed to know him. He gave us great joy.”
Baker previously said Barker was a family man with a servant’s heart.
He said Barker and a handful of others — known as the “Keller Coffee Clique” — would meet six days a week for coffee, where Barker would not only read the others their horoscopes and play his daily sudoku, but pridefully share photos of his now-6-month-old grandson, Brooks.
In his obituary, Barker’s family echoed Baker’s sentiment, writing “Above all, Barker was most proud of his family.”
Before the vigil concluded with a flag-retirement ceremony, Baker said that just as “your joy is your sorrow unmasked,” the life and loss of Barker proved the same is true for the opposite.
“Terry, this community must have loved you with all its heart, because we now are enduring an ocean of grief and sorrow,” he said. “You will be missed, you will be remembered. God bless you. May you rest in peace.”
CORRECTION, 1:15 p.m., Nov. 18, 2022: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Terry Barker and John Baker were tech airmen instructor pilots. They were check airmen instructor pilots.
