Darryl Ferguson

Darryl Graham Ferguson was born the second child to Shannon "Annette" Ferguson and Charles "David" Ferguson on May 4th, 1967 in Madison, Wisconsin where his father was stationed at Truax Air Force Base.

Only ten weeks later, Darryl's father, Captain Ferguson was transferred to Tachikawa Air Force Base near Tokyo Japan, and brought Annette, their oldest child Shannon, and Darryl along. After a few years in Japan, Darryl's father left the Air Force and the family settled in Hurst, Texas in 1970, only a few miles from where the future DFW International Airport would open several years later. Darryl's brother, Eric was born in 1971. In 1977 the family of five moved even closer to DFW airport to Euless Texas, and this is where Darryl would remain throughout his education until graduating college. Consequently, the family's new neighborhood was full of airline employees. That, coupled with the fact that his grandfather Leo was a career Flight Engineer at American Airlines, would prove influential to his later career decisions.

Darryl had the benefit of a close and loving family, including a large extended family in the DFW area that regularly gathered for every major holiday and many more times every year to celebrate multiple birthdays and anniversaries. His formative days, months and years were filled with time spent with close family and friends which undoubtedly helped fuel his future successes.

In his early years he was involved in many team sports including soccer, football, basketball, and baseball through Junior High, but later began to focus more on music in high school. He was also a lifelong and avid swimmer, as well as an active SCUBA diver over the last decade of his life.

As to his musicianship, the piano was always his first love. He began playing before five years old, taking lessons for many years until every instructor said they had nothing left to teach him. Darryl had "perfect pitch" and played primarily by ear and would often complain that he did not read music well. But this had no bearing on his many musical accomplishments, as he later took up the trombone in junior high and could play almost anything you put in his hands after just a matter of minutes. Throughout his life he constantly consumed music of every variety, though his first love was always traditional "mainstream" jazz and his specialty was improvisational jazz piano.

Darryl began playing the piano professionally at the age of fourteen, primarily performing at weddings and receptions. His main weekend job throughout high school and into college was as the "house pianist" at Fort Worth's most exclusive restaurant at the time, "The Old Swiss House". He would make hundreds of dollars per night in the early 80s at a time when he was technically not even old enough to be in their bar playing piano late into the evening. He earned countless honors as a musician and was selected to many Texas "All State" bands both on the trombone in the Orchestra and Jazz bands, and was selected as the singular All State Jazz Band pianist while in his senior year at Trinity High School in Euless, TX, from where he graduated in 1985. Along the way he played with several rock bands during junior high and high school with many other talented young musicians.

Though he was offered multiple college scholarships based on his musical abilities, he instead chose to pursue a business education, graduating with a BS in Economics from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1989. Throughout high school and college Darryl held a number of different jobs in addition to his piano gigs, including a brief stint at American Airlines Cargo at a time when the airline operated a separate cargo division. He was always hard-working and full of energy.

Even while he was busy with school and music, Darryl began flying sailplanes at the age of seventeen and soon thereafter began flying powered aircraft, earning his Private Pilot's license and Instrument Rating during college. After college he spent a couple of years at different jobs, including as a "runner" at the Chicago Board of Exchange long before computerized commodity trading. But it didn't take long in the real world for Darryl to decide that a career as a professional pilot might be a better choice.

He enrolled to complete his commercial pilot training at the Mesa Airlines Pilot Development program in Farmington, New Mexico which he completed in July of 1993. After earning this additional college degree, he was then hired by the airline as a First Officer on the Beechcraft 1900; a 19 passenger twin-turboprop commuter airliner. He advanced to Captain on the 1900, then Captain on the Embraer Brasilia, then on to Captain on the Canadair Regional Jet. After several years at Mesa Airlines, he was hired as a 737 First Officer by America West Airlines in March of 2000 and permanently settled in the Phoenix Metro area. A few years later he transitioned to the Airbus 320 as a First Officer, and America West soon merged with US Airways, which then merged again with American Airlines in 2013. Darryl remained a first officer on the A320 long after he could have held captain, as he valued his personal time and control of his schedule more than the additional pay that came along with an upgrade to Captain. He finally chose to transition to the left seat on the Airbus just a few years ago.

During the midst of his career, Darryl found time to marry and start a family with Amy Blaska of Warren, Michigan. Darryl and Amy had their only son in November of 2001 and named him Brecker after Darryl's favorite jazz musician, saxophonist Michael Brecker. Darryl and Amy divorced several years later, but they remained close and devoted coparents to their son. Darryl later found a new relationship with Cathy, and they would go on to raise Brecker and Cathy's daughter, Julia, as one family. Everyone did their part to raise two highly successful and college educated young adults.

Darryl enjoyed travelling with friends and family and spent much of his off time doing so. He was fond of the Hawaiian Islands, many islands in the Caribbean, and the nation of Portugal. He would often take the family on vacations abroad, and Brecker and Julia would inherit his love for travel as they grew into adulthood. There were few places he would travel where he would not find something to admire and reasons to visit again.

Darryl was an animal lover! He never met a dog or cat he didn't immediately befriend. In turn, they always had an immediate sense of his love and compassion for them as few people could ever witness someone bond with any animal so quickly. This led to a house full of dogs and cats, most of which became permanent residents as a result of, as Darryl put it, "failed fosters." In other words, the household would sometimes take in animals intended to stay for a short while, only to keep them forever.

Darryl was a voracious reader and constantly read and listened to books and magazines of every variety. History, science, comedy, biographies, philosophy; everything was his realm and he had an insatiable desire to learn something new everyday. He also had the gift of being able to argue politics from any angle, usually without offending or being offended and made many friends of an opposite mindset doing so.

Darryl also had an incredible capacity for spontaneous humor, and a near limitless memory for jokes: There was rarely a quiet moment when he was around and he could find humor and make you laugh in nearly any situation. He was thoughtful and considerate, but non-stop hilarious at the same time.

Darryl was absolutely and unashamedly unique and one-of-a-kind: He was exceptionally smart, athletic, outgoing, friendly, funny, generous, talented, compassionate, and loving. He was a gifted musician and a total audiophile. Above all, he was a devoted son, brother, father and friend.

Darryl is survived by his parents, David and Annette Ferguson, partner, Cathy Lesniak, Son, Brecker, chosen daughter, Julia, sister, Shannon and husband, Steve Clark, and his brother, Eric and wife, Phyllis, Nieces, Brooke and Katie and their families, Nephews Christopher and family and Joshua, Eric's son. Darryl is preceded in death by his grandparents Leo and Jan Williams and Owen and Willie Ferguson, in addition to several dear aunts, uncles and cousins.