By Jeff Hunter ’96

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The darkest day in the history of Utah State University happened on a clear autumn afternoon.

On Sept. 26, 2005, a horrific van accident north of Tremonton, just 30 miles from the Logan campus, claimed the lives of eight USU students and their instructor and severely injured two more young Aggies.

Now, 20 years later, in his office in the Industrial Science Building, Bruce Miller quietly walks over to retrieve a pair of file folders tucked away in a corner before returning and solemnly placing them atop a small conference table.

Carefully nestled inside Miller’s folders are many of the newspaper articles chronicling the accident. Currently the head of the Aviation Technology department at USU, Miller was, at that time, head of the Applied Sciences, Technology and Education department .

The folders also hold anniversary articles published over the past 20 years, as well as other items of note, including the program from the dedication service for the memorial entitled “The Tools of Agriculture” unveiled in 2009 in honor of the nine men who died and the two survivors.

But perhaps the most sobering item is a collection of black-and-white papers attached by a paper clip with identical headings: ASTE 1010 Introduction to Agricultural Systems Technology; Laboratory Activity #2 Analyzing Simple and Complex Machines.

The exercise in Miller’s lab called for groups of three or four ASTE students to work together, performing various tasks while rotating through stations set up in the laboratory. The assignments, with spaces for handwritten answers and sketches, are far from unusual items for a university campus. But the names at the top of the papers hit hard if you’re familiar with identities of the passengers in the van that September day.

There’s Tremonton native Robert Petersen — better known now as “Robbie” — who signed his name in black pen at the top of his assignment, one of his first as a freshman at Utah State. Sophomore Justin Huggins of Bear River City included his middle initial, “C,” which honors his father, Clark Huggins. The signature of Tremonton native Dusty Fuhriman is big and was seemingly done very quickly, like a celebrity signing an autograph.

Conversely, Steve Bair of Moses Lake, Washington, wrote his name very deliberately and compactly, and Woodburn, Oregon’s Jared Nelson signed his assignment in all capital letters, adding robust flourishes at the end of “Jared” and “Nelson.”  

It’s a small and very sobering glimpse into the kind of lives those young men from the ASTE program were living heading into the fall of 2005.

“Those are assignments … completed assignments that they were never able to pick up,” Miller quietly confirms.

The Reality of Tragedy

Two decades ago, the final week of September at the institution originally known as the Agricultural College of Utah was reserved for a celebration of Utah State University’s agricultural heritage. And as the student senator for the College of Agriculture for the 2005-06 school year, Cody Bingham was in the middle of preparations for one of the first activities of the college’s annual Ag Week on Monday night.

“We were getting the barbeque ready when things happened that quickly changed the nature of that week,” Bingham says of the picnic planned outside the ASTE Building on 1400 North. “That’s when the news started coming in about what had happened.

“… That quickly changed the tone of things because there were a lot of questions and not really any answers. And there were spouses and close friends of some of the people who were in the van that were there waiting for them to return.”

What slowly came to light over the next five or six agonizing hours, primarily via the Utah Highway Patrol, was that just before 4 p.m., a 15-passenger van belonging to Utah State University had left Interstate 84 and rolled several times just as it was starting its gradual descent into the Bear River Valley. The 1994 Dodge was believed to have been driven by ASTE instructor Evan Parker, but the names of students who had traveled to a farm in northern Box Elder County to see a new combine in action that day weren’t readily known.

At the time, Noelle Cockett was technically the dean of the College of Agriculture, but the longtime professor and research geneticist was also serving as Utah State’s interim provost. Cockett was in her office in Old Main reviewing some financial matters when Sydney Peterson, the chief of staff for USU President Stan Albrecht, burst into her office just after 5 p.m. to tell her there had been a serious accident involving Utah State students.

“From that moment on, everyone that was in Champ Hall at that moment was really pretty incredible,” Cockett remembers. “Everyone stayed through the evening as we waited for updates.”

USU Police Chief Steve Mecham was the primary point of contact with the UHP, while Peterson desperately tried to contact Albrecht. The former provost and dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Albrecht had taken over as president of the university the previous February. At the time of the accident, he himself was on the highway, heading for meetings in Salt Lake City the following morning.

“I could always get a hold of Stan,” Peterson says, “but for some reason, there was about an hour and a half when I couldn’t get him.”

While they awaited Albrecht’s return to campus, Cockett and other administrators desperately worked on finding out the names and medical status of the van’s occupants, which they kept track of on a dry-erase board that Peterson had behind her office door.

“I basically had an open phone line on speaker for hours,” Peterson says. “[Associate Vice President for Facilities] Darrell [Hart] would write the names on my whiteboard as we got them. Some had question marks because we didn’t know if they were really in the van. Even after we got a class roster (from Miller), that didn’t necessarily mean they were on the trip.

“If we knew, we’d write what hospital they were at. And then he would write ‘deceased’ by the names. It was just so tragic. There were so many names. Nine names.”

Before the van stopped rolling after an estimated 300 yards — somehow ending up back on its wheels just short of falling into a ravine — all 11 occupants were ejected. Parker, 45, was the last victim to be discovered by first responders. The husband and father of six commuted to USU each day from Hooper, and had dropped his pickup off in Tremonton earlier in the day, planning to pick it up and then head straight home via I-15 while his students continued on to Logan.

But that transition never happened due to Parker losing control of the vehicle after the left-rear tire blew out, an investigation later concluded. And he and eight other Aggies never made it back to campus that evening:

• Steven D. Bair, 22, Moses Lake, Washington
• Dusty D. Fuhriman, 22, Tremonton
• Justin W. Gunnell, 24, Wellsville
• Justin C. Huggins, 22, Bear River City
• Jonathan D. Jorgensen, 22, Hyrum
• Curt A. Madsen, 23, Payson
• Ryan W. McEntire, 22, West Point
• Bradley G. Wilcox, 26, Rexburg, Idaho

All of the students killed were underclassmen, and six of the victims were declared dead at the scene. The other three passed away at hospitals in Tremonton, Ogden, and Salt Lake City.

And while they were badly injured, Jared Nelson, 22, and Robbie Peterson, 21, survived the accident, and were life-flighted to separate hospitals in Ogden. Those two small glimmers of hope helped the mood in Old Main and down at the ASTE building, but it was a long, difficult night no one involved will ever forget — particularly those tasked with informing parents, wives, and a fiancé their loved ones had been killed. While the majority of those heartbreaking moments fell upon members of law enforcement, one of the wives showed up at the ASTE building, and Miller didn’t know what to tell her.

“Bruce called up and said, ‘She’s asking where her husband is. Can somebody come talk to her?’” Cockett says through misty eyes. “So, [USU Police Lieutenant] Steve Milne and I decided we would be the two to go down there. I had never done anything like that before, but he had because of his law enforcement background. And he said he would be the one to do the talking.

“But as soon as she saw Steve, she started leaning back because she can tell. He said, ‘There’s been a bad accident, and unfortunately your husband has passed.’ But that look on her face; she had realized before she was told. And after I asked if there was anything we could do to help, she said, ‘With all due respect, I don’t know you two, and I need to talk with my family.’”

Cockett and Milne found an empty conference room where the young wife could call her family, and Cockett later attended the funeral for her husband.

“I didn’t know what her response would be when I walked in; I didn’t know if she hated me or what. … Her whole life had changed,” Cockett says. “But when she saw me, she just threw her arms around me and said, ‘Thank you so much for coming.’”

Speaking from the Heart

John DeVilbiss was USU’s executive director of public relations and marketing at the time of the accident. But like President Albrecht, DeVilbiss wasn’t on campus at the time the news of the crash reached Old Main. He’d decided to take advantage of the nice fall weather and had taken that Monday off to paint his house.

Unable to get a hold of DeVilbiss as media inquiries started to come in, Peterson told her daughter, Maren Aller, to find him. A public relations specialist, Aller was working late that day, helping to get invitations ready for Albrecht’s inauguration scheduled to take place in October.

“I called John’s house, and one of his kids answered, and he was like, ‘Well, he’s on the roof painting,’” Aller recalls. “And I said, ‘Please get him off the roof … right now!’ And he was over here within 20 minutes.”

That was the start of a very difficult day for DeVilbiss, who retired in 2020 after a 30-year career at USU that included a stint as the executive director of Utah State Magazine.

“I loved, loved my time there, except for that moment,” he says quietly. “I didn’t love that. In fact, it was the worst day of my career for sure. It was horrible.”

DeVilbiss went to his office in the PR Building across Champ Drive from Old Main “for a few seconds, trying to put some things together,” then quickly went to Champ Hall. Albrecht had arrived just before him, and the president was already on the phone talking to parents of one of the students involved in the accident.

The next couple of hours, DeVilbiss tried his best to orchestrate Albrecht’s numerous requests, from calling grieving parents to addressing local media, and then national news organizations like CNN. But because he came straight to Old Main, Albrecht was still wearing jeans, leading to DeVilbiss retrieving a sports jacket from his office and letting the president borrow it for a brief press conference.

“We were already getting attention at a national level, but I didn’t want President Albrecht to have to do that because he needed to be there for those families,” DeVilbiss says. “There’s just no substitute for that grim responsibility; it was his voice that they needed to hear. And that’s something he had to do at least 11 times that evening.

“At that point in time, I saw him more as a consoling-father type of person. I don’t envy what he had to do, but I certainly admire the way he stepped up.”

 Albrecht, who canceled his upcoming inauguration almost immediately, spoke to the media that night, along with Cockett, who ended up succeeding him as president of the university in January 2017.

“It was at that moment that I knew she was going to be president,” DeVilbiss says of Cockett, who has continued to teach in the Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences Department after stepping down as president in July 2023. “I just felt immensely grateful to have President Albrecht at the helm and to have Noelle as his provost at the time. I couldn’t have been more proud of Noelle for her caring and calm demeanor, and President Albrecht had that quiet, soft-spoken manner about him that seemed to help stop the room from spinning.

“They both spoke directly from the heart during that news conference, and I really respected that they were as transparent as could be under the circumstances. I think anybody in that room at that time had a sense that this university was something more than just an institution. It really felt to me like we were a family, and in its darkest day, we were just trying to hold it together and to be there for each other.”

That became abundantly clear the Tuesday night after the accident when a candlelight vigil took place on The Quad. Hundreds of Utah State students, administrators, faculty members, and staff, as well as members of the community, converged on the beloved campus center to grieve together.

“The number of people who came out for the candlelight vigil really surprised me,” Miller says. “I’m a pretty introverted person, so that was kind of overwhelming for us to have that amount of public outreach and emotion. People came from all over.”

A Gift from the Heart

The weeks after the van crash were filled with indescribable sorrow for the families and young widows of those killed, as well as great concern for the two survivors. While Robbie Peterson would eventually recover from breaking both of his legs, two ribs, a foot, and his nose, it soon became apparent that Jared Nelson’s life would never be the same. Married to his wife, Amy, for just over a month, Nelson suffered a severe brain injury that left him unable to talk, and limited mobility due to physical trauma from the accident would necessitate a wheelchair.

After spending a year in Oregon to be closer to Jared’s family, the Nelsons returned to Logan for a couple of years so Amy could complete her degree in physical therapy at Utah State. They then moved back to Jared’s hometown of Woodburn.

Now married with two children, Peterson lives and works in agriculture in the Tremonton area. He provided a beautiful full-circle moment when, after taking a year off from school to completely recover, he completed his bachelor’s degree and graduated from Utah State in 2011.

At a press conference at McKay-Dee Hospital about 10 days after the accident, Peterson stated: “All the men involved were some of the finest men I’ve ever met. They all lived up to a life and a standard that is far above that is expected.”

“I hope that my story will be inspiring to everyone,” Peterson added. “To reach out to their friends and neighbors and show their love and concern for them. Nothing I have done or had happen to me can be considered extraordinary. But the people who have shown their support, have shown their thoughts and concerns, love and compassion, are to be considered extraordinary.”

A month later, Peterson was still in a wheelchair but was able to attend a special memorial service at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Nov. 7. Speakers included Albrecht, Cockett, and Elder L. Tom Perry, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who grew up in Logan and graduated from Utah State. Music was provided by members of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, under the direction of Craig Jessop, who would later serve as the first dean of USU’s Caine College of the Arts.

Cockett was so moved by the choir’s rendition of Homeward Bound that she had it performed during every Commencement while she was president.

Bind me not to the pasture; Chain me not to the plow
Set me free, to find my calling; And I’ll return to you, somehow

In addition, Russ Dixon, a graduate of USU then employed by the university, composed a song for the memorial titled, Thank God for What You Planted. Tears flowed freely throughout the Spectrum as Dixon, a member of the musical act Colors, performed an acoustic version of his composition during a video tribute to the men involved in the accident.

There’s a special place where the river bends, just outside of Logan
There’s a thousand memories that take me there
And when I look up in the sky at night and wonder if you’ll be alright
I close my eyes and say a little prayer

Cause there’s a hope and there’s a love, someone watching from above
And heaven knows you’re out there waiting, smiling down on me
And through the earth, across the fields, you’ll be with us still
A legacy we’ll never take for granted
Thank God for what you planted

Standing in front of grieving families, Cockett, who had attended many of the funerals the previous month, acknowledged the tragic events of Sept. 26, 2005, had caused “such incredible sadness,” but it had also been “a gift from the heart.”

“All of these things have made me realize some simple but precious truths,” Cockett stated. “That being true to family and friends is really what matters; that working with your hands is an honorable profession; that gifts from the heart mean the most; that I should never hesitate to give a kind word or smile; that I should give my full attention to my kids when I’m with them; and that I should tell my husband that I love him when he leaves for work in the morning.

“While these are simple things, I hope I also remember them and act on them every day of my life.”

When reminded of her poignant words that day, Cockett says after the memorial, her mother saw a video of her talk and asked her, “How did you know what to say?”

“I swear it was the Holy Spirit,” Cockett proclaims. “I know the Holy Spirit helped me come up with those words. I know it.”

Honoring and Mourning

The whiteboard in Peterson’s office stood untouched for more than a year, the names of those lost in the accident frozen in time on a small memorial behind her office door.

“Someone came in one day, got an eraser and was going to erase it, and I said, ‘No, you can’t erase it,’” remembers Peterson, who retired in 2022 after 40 years at Utah State. “That was kind of how I grieved. It impacted others in different ways, but that’s how I grieved over the loss. … They were people, not just names.”

“I just can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” says Aller, who is currently a senior writer in the University Advancement office. “It’s one of the biggest moments in the history of the university and one of its saddest. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

But two decades later, not everyone is even aware of the deadly crash, which led to a policy change by the university that abruptly discontinued the use of 15-passenger vans. To his credit, Bingham, who now grows sugar beets, corn, wheat, barley, and alfalfa on a collection of farms in Jerome, Idaho, realized early on that the university community needed a permanent place to mourn the victims and inform future students of the tragedy in the decades to come. Since he was coming back the following year after he was the Ag Senator to start graduate school, he asked Cockett if he could “lead the charge” to raise funds for a memorial.

Those efforts came to fruition when a memorial comprised of granite and nine bronze panels sculpted by USU art graduate Mark DeGraffenried was unveiled in the spring of 2009. The tangible tribute, which now sits permanently on the north side of the Stan L. Albrecht Agricultural Sciences Building, celebrates something personal from each of the nine victims.

“It was a satisfying experience to be able to participate in something like that to honor those guys,” Bingham says. “I make a point of visiting it every time I go back to campus and stop and reflect and think.”

Through the Years

Standing in front of a backdrop of tractors and other farm machinery, Bruce Miller opened the video tribute that was shown at the Spectrum memorial in November 2005 with a proclamation:

“All of the students and Mr. Parker that were involved in the accident will always be a part of our department,” Miller stated. “I know that they will always be remembered. And their legacy really will be carried on by both our past and our future students.”

Two decades later, it’s obvious Miller meant what he said.

In memory of those lost in the van accident, he helped with the creation of what is now known as the Legacy of Utah State Award — an honor given to a student at the annual Robins Awards “to recognize and emphasize a student who represents the heart and soul of the university.”

Miller says current CAAS students certainly hear references to the tragedy or see the memorial on campus more than most USU students, and Parker and his students continue to be commemorated every fall during Ag Week.

And for the past 20 years, Miller has also had to come to grips with a very large and very personal “What if?”

“There was probably a better than 50/50 chance that I was going to go along with them that day because who doesn’t like to see a good combine?” he says. “But, you know, the van was fairly full. And I was kind of involved with getting things set up for the picnic that night.

“That’s just the way fate works, I guess. … It was a beautiful, gorgeous fall day, nothing really to give you a concern. A typical harvest-type day in the fall. It just turned bad very quickly.”

A native of Nebraska who joined the faculty at USU in 1991, Miller also serves as CAAS’s Research Farm Coordinator. That means he’s on I-84 several times a year, heading into northern Box Elder County to visit the university’s Blue Creek Research Farm. And on the way back to Logan, he passes the site of the van crash, which is now marked by a large stone monument that sits just beyond the fence line.

In the summer of 2020, a vinyl memorial banner ravaged by the weather was replaced by a permanent marker thanks to the considerable efforts of Rusten Thornley and his family as an Eagle Scout project. The Tremonton residents, who are related to Justin Huggins, secured more than $10,000 for the project thanks to 200 different donors.

Topped by an image of a tractor in a field, the monument includes the names of the 11 men who were in the van that day, as well as the engraving: “ALWAYS REMEMBER September 26, 2005; We thank God for what you planted.”

“It turned out really nice. That was really nice, what that kid did,” Miller says. “I’m on that interstate for different reasons, and slow down there anytime I drive by. But I’ll pull over and stop by the monument at least once or twice a year and think about that day.

“It’s just always been a part of me through the years.”