‘That was my hero:’ Hundreds mourn National Grid worker Saturday killed in Waltham crash

CAMBRIDGE -- Roderick Jackson avoided attention, family and friends said at his funeral Saturday, preferring to be a doting son and brother to his large family and a supportive worker for his colleagues at National Grid.

But Jackson, who was killed Dec.

6 in a car crash that also claimed the life of a Waltham police officer, had touched the lives of hundreds of others. And they said he would have been pleased that so many people came together -- friends, utility workers, and Waltham police officers -- to support his family at St. Paul A.M.E.

Church.

"This was a young man who probably eschewed anything that was public," the Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown told mourners. "But his love for his family was so public, that everybody saw it, understood it, and celebrated it."

Jackson, a 36-year-old Cambridge native fondly known as "Kito," was remembered as a inspiring, driven family man who encouraged his siblings while also pursuing excellence as a college athletic star, and later, as a hardworking utility worker for National Grid.

He stood out not for his size -- he was well over 6 feet -- but for the depth and breadth of his heart, mourners recalled.

Jackson didn't have children of his own, but was focused on his family, which included his younger brother and two sisters.

"I'm so proud to be your brother. I'm so proud of the man you were, and that you are. Because even in death, you still find ways to support this family," said Manuel Asprilla-Hassan, Jackson's brother, during the funeral.

Asprilla-Hassan appeared deeply moved by the sight of so many people gathered inside the church -- filling seats, standing in aisles, and packing an overflow room in the basement, where they could watch a video of the proceedings.

Many wore pins bearing Jackson's name.

While attending Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, Jackson was named the most outstanding basketball player of the year, and earned a scholarship to play at William Penn University in Iowa, according to his obituary.

His love for family drew him back to Massachusetts, where he led Framingham State University's basketball team to a 2010 championship and earned a degree in business administration, the obituary said.

Asprilla-Hassan recalled the life lessons his older brother instilled in him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without you, but I can feel you standing here next to me," Asprilla-Hassan said.

As Asprilla-Hassan spoke, his mother, Norma Asprilla leaned in close and placed her hand near her son's on the lectern. He said he could feel Jackson's presence, his reassurance that everything will be ok.

"That was my hero," he said of Jackson. "He believed in me more than I believed in myself."

A friend of Jackson's who also spoke at the funeral remembered a phone conversation between the two men a few days before the crash.

"He just told me all his goals, what he planned on doing," the friend said. "It was all just for his family."

On the afternoon of Dec.

6, Jackson was killed along with Waltham police officer Paul J. Tracey, 58, when a man crashed a pickup truck into the roadside detail Jackson and Tracey were working on along Waltham's Totten Pond Road.

Prosecutors have said the truck was driven by Peter J.

Simon, 54, of New Hampshire, who faces manslaughter and several other charges related to the crash. Simon, who was ordered held without bail, has pleaded not guilty.

Tracey's funeral was held Friday in Waltham, and on Saturday, numerous Waltham police officers, including Waltham Police Chief Kevin O'Connell and Mayor Jeannette McCarthy, attended Jackson's funeral.

"Two people have gone to heaven, but the hurt still is here, and it's going to be there for a long time," McCarthy said.

O'Connell said Waltham officers wanted to come together with Jackson's family at a time of grief.

"Roderick was a friend of ours, we want to be over here. We're hurting, they're hurting.

They came to us, and we came to them.

And that's what community is," O'Connell said.

Some National Grid workers who spoke to the media said it was important Jackson's family knew they were there.

As the funeral procession left the church for Jackson's burial at Cambridge Cemetery, a phalanx of National Grid trucks joined the column.

One utility worker grew emotional talking about Jackson, saying: "He will be missed deeply."

John Hilliard can be reached at [email protected][1].

References

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