My friend David Fair was wonderfully at odds with the 21st century. Navigating his iphone and Facebook left him flummoxed.

His considerable gifts were firmly rooted in the real world, in places where the only glimmer of light was this stocky, utterly endearing man with the Texas accent.

When Dave died on January 7th, I disconnected from the technologies that so often perplexed him. I took time to visit with his family and reflect on his extraordinary life and our unlikely friendship.

I had never met a police chaplain until I met Dave. Although my father was a police officer, chaplains tend to stay off the radar. They rarely talk about what they do.

I soon discovered that Dave was no ordinary chaplain. Among his peers he was considered one of the best.

I marveled at the extraordinary acts of civic kindness this man performed without pay and in near obscurity: delivering death notifications; comforting those traumatized by violence, not to mention talking “more than one” person from jumping off a water tower.

Dave was a beacon of light through some of the darkest days of the past thirty years. His deployments include Hurricane Katrina, Rita, Dolly, Gustav and Ike, the aftermath of Waco’s Branch Davidian stand-off, the Oklahoma City bombing and Ground Zero in the days following September 11.

Rightly considered, Dave perfectly embodied the best of Christian social teaching. Having spent much of my life lamenting the state of religion in America, which at times seemed more “Game of Thrones” than Beatitudes, Dave was the good I dared to appear.

He represented a group of citizens who provide a spiritual lifeline to people in their most desperate hour. It was a story I thought worth telling.

Fifteen years later, the Police Chaplain Project, the organization Dave and I co-founded, has conducted more than 120 on-camera interviews with some of the most accomplished police chaplains of the past 50 years.

Dave’s wisdom is now a permanent part of our digital archive. Up in the cloud, where Dave was so often adrift, he now reigns, a mere click away for future generations of police chaplains and those of us who just want to occasionally hear his voice.

Dave’s life is a reminder that grief and tragedy are only for a time, and that the hard work of making this world a better place only begins by signing-off, looking up and engaging with others.

Dave, I will forever be grateful to you for the wonderful group of chaplains I have met and proudly call friend. To say that they are among the best people I know is an understatement. They are an “absolute good”.

To his wife Karen and his children, thank you for sharing Dave with me so I could share him with others.

Phillip LeConte

Co-founder of the Police Chaplain Project

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Police Chaplain Project, an archive of wisdom for chaplains and caregivers, can be found at ChaplainUSA.org.