Steven Moore, executive director of the National Gay Pilots Association, died Oct. 27 when his Mooney crashed after takeoff at Boulder Municipal Airport in Denver.
Moore, 35, “wasn’t just the Executive Director of the NGPA, he was a friend to all its members, and he believed in them and pushed them to be their best,” according to a memorial website.
Moore was an AOPA member and held an airplane multiengine land airline transport pilot certificate, as well as commercial airplane single-engine land and sea ratings. He also was a flight instructor.
“He was passionate about moving the NGPA forward from a mostly social group to one that was truly a career builder. Under Steve’s leadership, the NGPA progressed from an obscure organization in the wider aviation community to one in which such global forces as American Airlines were at NGPA events to recruit LGBT pilots. None of this would have been possible without Steve at the helm pushing us to think outside the box and advocating for us every step of the way,” the memorial website said.
David Pettet, the new executive director of the organization, wrote in a message to the group’s members that “Steven did a remarkable job leading the organization the past several years, and his energy and passion for NGPA needs to live on through all of us. NGPA changed Steven's life, just as much as he changed ours. He would want all of us to continue our efforts to make the NGPA a better, bigger voice than ever before.”