BY MELINDA WILLIAMS

Clipper Staff Writer

CLINTON — As a boy growing up in Clinton, Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Aaron Beesley was particularly gifted in repairing electronics.

His brother, Arik Beesley, also a highway patrol trooper, said that when they were children, if the two found something electronic — a broken radio, television, even a microwave in their travels through the neighborhood — Aaron would take it and repair it.

Still in his early teens then, Aaron would also fix computers for his teachers at Sunset Junior High School.

Aaron Beesley, 34, died Saturday while rescuing two hikers from Mt. Olympus.

He had helped get two hikers off the mountain via helicopter, but fell as he was reaching for his medical bag just prior to boarding the helicopter himself.

Arik Beesley said his brother became interested in ham radios as a teen and worked with the Red Cross whenever there were wildland fires.

Interest and ability in electronics could have led the teen into an IT career, and he had offers for jobs and college scholarships, but Arik Beesley said his brother didn’t want to spend his time behind a desk. He wanted contact with people. He wanted to serve people.

“He found satisfaction in being in law enforcement, Arik Beesley said. That satisfaction fit in with his desire to serve others, Arik Beesley added.

UHP Capt. Luke Bowman, one of the department’s pilots, spoke of Aaron Beesley’s desire to serve others.

“There was never a time I called him, day or night, that he wasn’t there. He was always there for you,” Bowman said.

Within the past year, Aaron Beesley was assigned to the Highway Safety Office, within the Utah Department of Public Safety. There, he took on a special assignment, a statewide project of getting all of Utah’s 150 law enforcement agencies online with their traffic reports.

David Beach, the director of the highway safety office, said Aaron Beesley worked with every local law enforcement agency whether it had a lone laptop or the most up-to-date technology.

“It was amazing,” Beach said. “With his personal interest, his knowledge and what he was doing in law enforcement, he was an absolute gem,” Beach said.

For more information check out the July 5 edition of Davis Clipper.