That was the thing about Rocky, he made everybody feel like a friend, and I certainly felt lucky to be one of those people.

Spencer was killed on September 8, in a trajedy involving a helicopter in the Yakima Canyon. He was working with bighorn sheep, and the use of helicopters in wildlife management is one of the things he helped pioneer in our state.

His death was an accident, the love people had for him was not. His memorial service lasted more than two and one half hours. The sadness, the tears and the choking up of friends, family and colleagues was frequently punctuated by humor. Rocky's life, it seems, had no shortage of hilarious anecdotes.

His brother launched a friendly barb at Rocky's bosses, that they were wasting the taxpaper's money. Scott Spencer says Rocky loved his job so much, he would have worked for free.

I was watching KING 5 news at 10 on KONG a week ago when the news broke, that Rocky Spencer had been killed instantly in a helicopter mishap. It was stunning, and sickening news to receive. By the 11 p.m. show, the writers had pulled up some file footage of Rocky. It was of my last interview with him in July ... a story about how he and a graduate student assistant were using high-tech tracking methods to map out how cougars were slinking in and out of suburban neighborhoods, usually unnoticed. His mission was trying to get people and wildlife to get along and keep out of each other's way ... because it was usually the cougar or the bear who lost out in a confrontation with people, and those conflicts are rising as housing developments continue to push into wildlife habitat.

I wish I had gotten to know Rocky Spencer better. KING 5 Environmental Specialist Gary Chittim had that opportunity more often that I did. But in this business, as journalists, our jobs often overlap to some degree. My love for the outdoors and interest in wildlife brought me in contact with Spencer on a number of occasions, even it if was just a chat on the phone.

As the reporter who primarily covers aviation and aircraft accidents, I will be very interested to find out just what went wrong on that fateful Saturday, so hopefully it won't have to happen again.