By Kathleen Masterson
The Capital Times
Copyright 2008 The Capital Times
MADISON, Wis. — Mourners by the hundreds remembered Dr. Darren Bean and Steve Lipperer for their kindness, skill and humor Thursday, and then the bell tolled for them.
Bean and Lipperer, along with nurse Mark Coyne of Waunakee, died Saturday when their Med Flight helicopter crashed near La Crosse.
A tear-stained gathering of 1,500 people watched the memorial procession Thursday evening from the Monona Terrace Convention Center rooftop. Madison police vehicles, several fire vehicles and a fire truck held off traffic on Wilson Street and Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard to make way for the two white hearses.
At least 100 uniformed men and women from Med Flight, the Madison Fire Department, Madison Police, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and emergency medical services lined up along the bridge to the rooftop, where they stood for more than an hour as friends, family, colleagues and many others whom Bean and Lipperer touched arrived to honor their dedication and their lives.
“We gather here because we are sad. But we also gather because we believe in what these men believed in,” said Patrick Tomko, a training officer with the Madison Fire Department who led the evening’s memorial service.
Bean, 37, of the town of Springfield, a Med Flight and emergency physician since 2002, also served as the Madison Fire Department’s medical director since January 2007. He is survived by his wife, Stacey, and their two children, Parker and Caitlyn.
Lipperer, 39, of Waunakee, served as a Med Flight pilot for UW Hospital since 2000 and had worked as a pilot and an aviation mechanic for two decades. Surviving him is his wife, Dr. Desiree La Charite. Also remembered was Coyne, 53, who will be honored in a memorial service Monday at Crossroads Church in Madison.
From Wilson Street, the Bravest and Finest Memorial Pipe Band led the solemn procession, followed by the uniformed men and women who bore the caskets of Bean and Lipperer over the bridge. The audience was awash with the bright blue suits of UW Med Flight personnel, the navy blue of the fire department and the many others who loved and appreciated the three men who dedicated so much of themselves to serving others.
“Darren always did his best when the pressure was the greatest,” said Brian Schiller, his stepfather, who lovingly described Bean’s devotion to family and to constantly working to improve the success rate of emergency calls.
Schiller met Bean when he was just an 11-year-old boy. Bean had lost his father to a plane crash when he was only 17 months old, and soon Schiller became his second father. Even as a young boy, Bean cared deeply about all life, said Schiller, and he was passionate about teaching and sharing those joys with others. Bean taught Schiller how to fly fish, and Schiller said Bean showed the same gentle care for the trout he caught that he did for the people in his life.
“He cared for all life with such concern,” said Schiller. And in Bean’s constant push to improve medical care for others, Schiller said, he had an “uncanny ability to ask the right questions.” Among other things, Bean was one of the Madison area’s leading proponents of cardiocerebral resuscitation, a relatively new protocol that has been shown to resuscitate more people than CPR.
“Above all else, he always had the best attitude,” Schiller said.
Bean’s wife Stacey, an emergency physician at St. Mary’s Hospital, read a poem that she wrote for her husband and read to him at their wedding nine years ago. Part of it reads: “For nothing could make me happier than to have your friendship throughout life, and nothing could make me proud than to love and honor you as your wife.”
“When I wrote this poem nine years ago at the beginning of this month, I had no idea that our time together would be so short. But as I reflected last night when I was writing this to you, I have this overwhelming feeling of gratitude,” Bean said, her voice choked with tears. “I am so blessed that I was able to experience a love like ours. Your love was genuine, unconditional and real.”
Bean also spoke of Steve Lipperer, whom her children called “Uncle Steve.”
While some described Lipperer as shy, his family said in a statement read by childhood friend Troy Ashburn that he “always had a twinkle in his eye, letting you know there was something more he could say.”
Though Lipperer traveled around the world as a pilot and aviation mechanic, flying off of tuna boats in the South Pacific and yachts in the Caribbean, Med Flight co-worker Craig Lunaas said “Steve was not a risk-taker. He was deliberate in his actions. He planned everything in advance and was not excitable.”
“He was a great listener; we talked about everything,” Ashburn said. “I can’t imagine how many lives he touched.”
Jason Quisling read a statement from Lipperer’s wife, Desiree, who wrote: “I often wished I could be more like you. You taught me many things but most importantly how to love and be loved.”
After friends and family shared their stories, two Med Flight helicopters appeared from behind the Capitol and winged their way over the rooftop. The crowd rose and watched in silence as the blades whirred through the evening breeze, flying over Lake Monona before circling back to the north.
In a closing gesture, representatives from the Fire Department performed a bell ceremony. At fire stations, the bell both signals responders to their duty and marks the end of their day.
“To symbolize the devotion that these brave souls had for their duty, we sound a special signal on the bell of three rings, three times each, announcing the end of your comrades’ duties and their return to quarters,” said paramedic Jennifer Roman.
“And so to Darren, Steve and Mark, our comrades who have selflessly given their lives for the good of our fellow citizens, their tasks completed, their duties well done, we sound their last alarm. They are going home.”