‘Selfless’ public works employee falls to death while trimming tree, Florida county says
Every morning, David Owen walked into his job as a public works employee in Florida and started his day with a cup of coffee, honey roasted peanuts, a Little Debbie snack cake and a Code Red Mountain Dew.
He turned the computers on for his co-workers and prepped their vehicles and keys to ease their morning.
This is how his colleagues will remember him.
On Feb. 26, Owen was killed in a tree-trimming accident on the job in Ensley, Escambia County officials said.
The 59-year-old veteran employee was in the bucket of a crane cutting trees when a loose branch swung into the boom arm holding him up, according to a Feb. 26 news release from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
The force knocked Owen from the bucket and he fell to his death, the sheriff’s office said. He was not wearing a harness or helmet at the time, deputies said.
“David Owen is the type of guy you’re never going to replace,” his supervisor, Randy Brasch, said in a Feb. 29 news release from the county. “There’s not another David Owen out there. They don’t make them like him anymore.”
‘Like brothers’
Owen joined the staff of Escambia County Public Works in April 1999, and served as an equipment operator for nearly 25 years, the county said.
Owen, along with equipment operator Floyd Heist, spent their days cutting and trimming trees, completing work orders for the county and logging potential hazards in a mental “Rolodex,” the county said.
“David and I were together 99% of the time,” Heist told county officials. “We were like brothers.”
Heist and Brasch described Owen as “selfless” and said he was known for being willing to help anybody and everybody.
“He would take his shirt right off his back and give it to anybody,” Heist said.
“If David had $10 in his pocket and you needed $10, he would give it to you,” Brasch added. “He had a big heart. David would do without to help others.”
His colleagues also said he was a dedicated employee who loved his job. Heist told county officials even when Owen wasn’t working, he would drive down the road and take note of potentially hazardous trees and branches for them to cut down later. Owen also hated rainy days because they slowed down his work, Heist said, and he got bored easily.
“He was a worker that wanted to work 24/7, because cutting trees was what he enjoyed doing,” Heist said.
‘The county was his life’
Outside of his work for the county, Owen like to work on old trucks and would go to the junkyard on his days off to look for parts for his projects, the county said.
“David also loved spending time with his grandchildren and family, especially his mother, who he visited daily,” the county said.
Brasch said almost anyone around would be able to recognize Owen and his black GMC truck.
“He loved cutting trees, and I loved being his supervisor,” Brasch said. “This was his life out here — the county was his life.”
The county said Owen would be remembered “as a hardworking, selfless person who was committed to his job and loved his family dearly.”
A visitation will be held for Owen on March 7, the county announced.
Ensley is about 195 miles west of Tallahassee, in the Florida panhandle.
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