FRIENDS REMEMBER VICTIMS OF AIR CRASH

Friends call Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Dodd "an amazing American success story" who started a motorcycle parts business in his garage and built it to a multi-million dollar national operation.

Dodd, 50, and Louis Rex Pettit, 43, both of Cape Girardeau were killed Thursday when a twin-engine plane crashed in south-central Pennsylvania. Thursday was Dodd's birthday.

Dodd, the plane's pilot, was owner of Motorcycle Stuff Inc. in Jackson. Pettit was warehouse manager of the company.

Funeral arrangements for both men are incomplete and are being handled by Ford and Sons Funeral Home. The services may not be held until the middle or later part of this week. Officials in Pennsylvania have not yet released the bodies.

Dodd and Pettit were on a buying trip and had visited a tire manufacturing facility in New York and a battery manufacturer in Reading, Penn. The two were returning to Cape Girardeau when the crash occurred.

Friends of the two men said they were both quiet, good natured people who loved motorcycles.

Phil Davis had worked for Dodd since 1976. Davis is a salesman with Motorcycle Stuff.

"Jim Dodd is living proof that hard work and perseverance will pay off," Davis said. "He is an amazing American success story."

Dodd started his motorcycle parts business about 20 years ago in the garage of his home. Now the business is a multi-million dollar operation with six locations around the nation, including one in Jackson.

"He was a heck of an entrepreneur," Davis said. "He had worked for another company, but he just wanted to do it himself."

Sonny Minor of Minor's Harley-Davidson said he and Dodd had been friends and business acquaintances for at least 20 years.

"He was a hell of a fine fellow," Minor said. "I'm really tore up about this thing. I've known him and his wife over the years. I saw his boys grow up."

And, Minor said, he saw Dodd's business prosper. "He made it on his own and had become quite affluent, but he never acted like it. He was a really fine person."

Todd Rowland, a former employee of Motorcycle Stuff who now operates a Cape Girardeau motorcycle shop said of Dodd, "He was the nicest man you would ever meet."

Cape Girardeau businessman Don Strohmeyer has known the Dodd family for years.

"He was one of the hardest working people I have ever seen," Strohmeyer said. "He was an excellent salesman. To my mind, he was the ultimate deal maker."

But, he said, Dodd was never one to seek the limelight. "He wanted to stay in the background."

Dodd was a neighbor of City Manager J. Ronald Fischer. "It was really a shock to me," Fischer said Thursday afternoon. He said Dodd was always friendly. "He was the kind of guy that if you saw him in the coffee shop, he always had time to stop and speak."

Davis said he and Rex Pettit had been friends since the seventh grade. "I am the same age as Rex. We graduated together. I got him a job at Motorcycle Stuff."

Pettit started with the company as a delivery driver about six years ago. "He had worked his way up," Davis said. "Now he was a manager out there. He was accompanying the boss on this buying trip."

Davis said Pettit loved to play horseshoes. "He was a quiet, good guy who was a friend to all."

Before going to work for Motorcycle Stuff, Pettit had worked as a bartender at The Playdium on Broadway for a while.

Davis said, "Rex was very easy going. He always had a smile for everyone."

Dodd not only ran the business, but also found time to race stock cars.

Strohmeyer said that two weeks ago, he watched Dodd participate in stock car races at the Missouri International Racepark at Benton. "He was really enthused about going there and doing that."

Dodd also sponsored professional motorcycle racers and sprint car racer Danny Lasoska.

Davis said, "He had raced cars years ago, and now that his business was doing well, he had a little free time." Dodd was also successful in racing, placing first once and second a couple of times at the Benton track.

Dodd's friends described him as an avid pilot who owned several airplanes. Davis said Dodd had been a pilot about five or six years. "It was his hobby and he had quite a passion for flying."

"He was a real supporter of aviation in Cape Girardeau, a good person," said Mark Seesing, manager of the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport. Dodd helped sponsor an air show in May that featured the Navy's Blue Angels.

Dodd was active in the local pilots club. "He flew all the time," said Seesing. "He really enjoyed flying and helped work to make the whole community aware of aviation."

Davis said: "He was a real professional pilot. He was strictly by the books. He was very cautious. When he got in an airplane, he never trusted anything to chance. He always got out the check list and went through it.

Davis, who has flown with Dodd many times, said he was disturbed by early news reports that said Dodd had ignored weather warnings at takeoff.

"A lot of times when you fly, they will say there are weather warnings. That doesn't mean you have ignored anything. He was obviously cleared for takeoff.

"The man was very careful and prudent when he flew. Especially with an employee, the man would never take a risk I guarantee."

Officials in Pennsylvania said the plane crashed about 10:15 a.m. Thursday, about two miles north of the borough of Denver, just north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, authorities said.

The six-seat Beechcraft Baron, owned by Motorcycle Stuff Inc., left Reading, Pa. Regional Airport at 10:06 a.m. It crashed a few minutes later in a heavily wooded area about 19 miles southwest of the airport.

Rescue crews located the wreckage about 11:30 a.m. It was scattered across about a 100-yard area, about 500 yards north of a farmhouse.

Area residents said it appeared the plane was trying to land in a hay field. Residents who saw the small plane go down said it was flying low and suddenly seemed to lose power and plummet to the ground.

It was raining and foggy at the time of the crash. Duncan Pardue, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the plane took off in steady rain from Reading airport and shortly after takeoff the pilot asked for permission to land at Harrisburg International Airport.

However, the pilot was told Harrisburg had too much traffic and he was told to return to Reading, Pardue said.

The pilot radioed that he had taken a northerly course for Reading and the plane went down about 45 seconds after that final communication, said an official at the Reading control tower.

The plane was based in Dover, Del., officials said.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and the Intelligencer Journal newspaper in Lancaster, Pa.