By Helen Hollyer

As Mike Grier's Piper Pawnee towed a banner reading, "I'm with angels, Alex. I love you all – Scott," over Creswell's Hobby Field airport, a flock of geese took flight from ponds east of the airfield, honking loudly as they moved into position in their characteristic V-shaped flying formation.

It was a fitting tribute to the late Benjamin Scott Henderson, the always affable pilot in the process of establishing a Creswell-airport-based business, "Scotty Air," to provide banner towing and sailplane launching when he died Aug. 23, 2009, following his passion -- flying.

Henderson's family members and friends gathered Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25 at Creswell airport's Experimental Aircraft Association building to celebrate his life.

They admired the boulder set just east of the EAA building as a memorial that had been provided by Henderson's father Frank Henderson and his mother Cheryl Olson and her husband Greg Olson.

The boulder's polished face is inscribed with the words:

"In memory of Benjamin ‘Scott' Henderson

‘Scotty Air'

And of the living…none, not one

Who truly loves the sky

Would trade a hundred earthbound hours

For one he could fly—Gill Robb Wilson

‘My life was such a blast…

And now I'm flying with angels'

Love, Scott."

One of the two benches donated by Chuck and Sue Hanson, parents of Henderson's life partner Kim Covington, was placed near the memorial boulder; the other was placed next to the EAA building. Both read, "In memory of Scott Henderson/He flies with angels."

As attendees watched quietly, Mark Stroble, a Creswell resident, commercial pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, with Henderson's business partner Bill Kelly as passenger, flew Henderson's Cessna 172 low over the airfield and released his ashes.

Four other local pilots performed the "Missing Man Formation," flying abreast as they approached the airfield from the south, with Steve Searle in his RV-6 peeling off alone as the other three, Stephan Hart in his Beech Bonanza, Larry Lowenkron in his Bellanca and Paul Preziose in a Cessna 182, continued north in formation.

The towed banner with the special message to Alex, Henderson's 15-year-old daughter, was the afternoon's final aerial observance before attendees entered the EAA building for a potluck meal and to share memories of Henderson.