Argyle motorcyclist dies in Roanoke wreck [Archive]

wonder91178

12-19-2007, 01:58 PM

Wednesday, Dec 19, 2007
Posted on Wed, Dec. 19, 2007
Argyle motorcyclist dies in Roanoke wreck

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/368736.html

BY BILL MILLER
wmiller@star-telegram.com

An Argyle man died late Tuesday when the motorcyle he was riding collided with a pickup truck in Roanoke, according to reports.
Mark Wolfe, 51, was identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.

He was pronounced dead 10:21 p.m. at the accident scene on U.S. 377 at its intersection with Hillsborough Boulevard, the medical examiner's office reported.

Wolf, who wore a helmet, was riding north on the highway when the motorcycle collided with a Chevrolet pickup truck that was turning south onto U.S. 377 from Hillsborough, said Sgt. Chris Almonrode, a police spokesman.

The driver of the truck told investigators that he looked both ways, waited for another vehicle to pass and then turned onto the highway.

"When he did, the motorcycle hit his vehicle on the driver's side door," Almonrode said.

The truck driver was not hurt, but he was deeply shaken by what happened, the sergeant said.

He added that other issues related to the accident, including the speed of the motorcycle and the truck, were still under investigation on Wednesday.
RIP

alancb

12-20-2007, 08:36 PM

RIP, someone I wish I had met...

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_Wolfe_1220.326d919b.html

Accident claims area man’s life

11:59 PM CST on Wednesday, December 19, 2007
By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer

ARGYLE — Mark Wolfe jumped on his motorcycle about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday for a quick trip to the grocery store.

He didn’t return.

“He just went after bread and milk and yogurt, and I called and called,” said his wife, Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, who is a staff writer at the Denton Record-Chronicle. “Finally, someone else answered his cellphone. They said they didn’t like to do it this way, but they told me that he was dead.”

Wolfe, 51, was heading northbound on U.S. Highway 377 in Roanoke when a pickup pulled through a stop sign at Hillsborough Street into the path of his motorcycle. The driver wasn’t seriously injured, but Wolfe was declared dead at the scene.

Information was not available from Roanoke police, but Troy Taylor, chief investigator for the Denton County medical examiner’s office, said Wolfe was wearing a helmet. He died of blunt-force trauma, Taylor said.

Taylor said the pickup faced a stop sign and the speed limit there is 55 mph, but he did not have information about whether any citations were issued.

Heinkel-Wolfe is the regional reporter at the Record-Chronicle. Her husband was a musician and a truck driver. They have three teenage children — Sam, Michael and Paige. Sam is a student at North Central Texas College, and Michael and Paige are students at Argyle High School.

Mark Wolfe was a tuba player and had played in bands in the area and taught private lessons in the Grapevine school district, said Vurl Bland, his friend and fellow tuba player.

Grapevine High School band members planned to dedicate their concert Wednesday night to Wolfe, Bland said.

And a group both men belong to will remember him at upcoming “Tuba Christmas” performances in Dallas and Fort Worth, he said.

“He was so cordial, so down to earth, so easygoing,” Bland said. “And always a good musician. He had that special insight into the music that brought it to life.”

University of North Texas journalism professor George Getschow has been editing Heinkel-Wolfe’s book, See Sam Run, which will soon be published by the UNT Press. The book is about the couple’s journey to understand and adapt to their son, Sam, who is autistic.

Getschow said he came to know Mark Wolfe first through the book and then from sitting in his living room while he worked with Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe.

“Mark is a central character in the book,” Getschow said. “It is the story of [Peggy’s] journey with Mark in learning to raise an autistic child. Mark had a hard time in the early years. It’s about a father coming to terms over the years with an autistic son — how he grows in his relationship with Sam. A relationship and a bond formed between the father and the son that she really cherished.”

Getschow said Heinkel-Wolfe at first tried to soft-pedal the struggles her husband had with his son’s disability. But her husband wouldn’t let her, Getschow said. He understood that the story needed to show his failures so it could show the success of the journey he made.

“It’s the story of a family discovering the beauty and magnificence of their son under what appears to be, on the surface, a major disability. It’s a powerful story for all of us. The thing I admire most about Mark is that he told her to tell that story without removing the blemishes.

“With Mark’s death,” Getschow said, “it leaves a big hole in the narrative of their lives.”