By Ken Wiggins, professor & friend

I met Kelley before I met Jared, and I remember that meeting so well. She was wearing a tan dress and looking so professional as she sat in my office and told me that she wanted to major in mathematics and that she wanted to work for the math department. She went on to do both, and we still talk about her excellent work.

I don’t remember exactly when I first met Jared, but, as chair of the math department at Walla Walla University, I knew him as a student earning majors in both mathematics and computer science. I do remember our first talk about cycling. I was astonished to learn that he was planning a 160-mile ride that would end on the Oregon coast. Kelley was planning to drive a support vehicle behind him. However, after learning more about his cycling, I wondered if Kelley was going along mainly because she wanted to be with him.

I had Jared as a student in a senior-level math sequence where he demonstrated the talent that would later make him so valuable to his employers. He was an excellent problem solver who could identify the important steps in a problem and then apply a logical process to get the solution. He could do this with very difficult problems.

My wife, JoAnn, and I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon snowmobiling in the Blue Mountains with Jared and Kelley while they were still students. After snowmobiling we came back to our home and enjoyed hot chili beans. Jared had such a positive, fun, outlook, and that is probably why I remember this adventure so fondly.

Jared and Kelley were part of a group of people around the same age who met each Friday evening for a potluck meal. One Friday, they invited JoAnn and me to come, and we enjoyed that evening so much.

Jared and Kelley were at our home for meals several times, including one time just a few weeks before he was killed. As always, we enjoyed talking cycling and Jared’s latest accomplishments at work. Kelley had been studying for an actuarial test, and she stopped by my office just a week before Jared was killed to tell me that she had passed her first actuarial test. That is a serious accomplishment and one worth celebrating.

Jared was a good man, and, with his cycling, he was an inspiration to me. I was so proud of him and what he was accomplishing with his work. I miss him.