ARBOETTJ.JUN


                          NO GREATER LOVE


              John W. Boettjer, 32, K...C...C...H...
            Managing Editor, THE SCOTTISH RITE JOURNAL
      1733 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009-3199


     Today Brother Robert Read is dead, killed while protecting
others.  Typically, his last week was spent giving rather than
taking.  He had been in Dallas at a management conference.  Just
ten years ago, he was attending the same training course he was now
giving.  
     Rather than participate in the Dallas conference's graduation
ceremonies on the evening of Saturday, October 14, l989, he sent
someone else in his place.  He went to work as usual at the Steak
& Ale Restaurant on U.S. 80 West in Fort Worth, Texas.  "He thought
work was a higher priority," his wife Darlene says.  Bob cared
about the employees and customers.  He wanted everything to be just
right.
     Given his conscientious attitude, Bob had not stayed a waiter
very long.  By l981, just two years after starting, he was a
manager, and four months after that he married Darlene, a waitress
for the Steak & Ale chain.  Soon they had three daughters.  At the
time of Bob's death Shelby was 6, Danielle 2, and little Alexandra
only 10 months.  Now Darlene is a widow and Bob's daughters
fatherless.
     The evening of Saturday, October 14, began routinely enough. 
Business was brisk.  A special had brought in good crowds.  As the
restaurant started to clear, three people, two men and a woman,
came in for a late dinner, or so it seemed.
     Shortly after they ordered, the woman, Brenda Rayburn, age 22,
got up, apparently to go to the ladies room.  Suddenly her two
companions, Steven Staley, 27, and Tracey Duke, 23, were on their
feet, shouting and brandishing two Mach 10 semiautomatic machine
pistols, the kind that shoot continuously when the trigger is
depressed.
     Demanding money, the three herded Bob, the restaurant
personnel and several customers to the back of the restaurant. 
They didn't notice one of the kitchen help slip out the back door
to alert police.  Forced at gunpoint, Bob filled a briefcase with
the day's receipts, but the police responded quickly.  By the time
the men and Brenda started out, the restaurant was surrounded.
     The gunmen decided to take hostages.  Read protested and
offered himself in exchange for the safety of several female
employees and customers.  Clutching the money-filled briefcase, he
was used as a shield by the three as they moved out of the
restaurant.  It was a standoff.  The police held their fire as the
men threatened to kill Bob.
     Bob was a big man, 6-foot-4-inch.  He had excelled in track
and football at Overland Park, Kansas, junior high and high school,
and was recruited as a running back for the University of Texas in
l973.  Perhaps he was too confident of his strength.  Perhaps his
captors lost control.
     In any case, there was a scuffle as the two men forced Bob
into a commandeered late-model Buick Regal.  Police are not sure if
Read was shot while or after being shoved into the automobile. 
Perhaps he lived through most of the wild 20-minute chase that
ensued.
     As a police helicopter tracked the car from above, several
patrol cars joined the chase through the city of Forest Hill.  They
observed two objects, the guns, being thrown from the car before it
suddenly stopped and the three jumped out.  One was chased down by
foot, the other two caught by police patrols in a residential
neighborhood, just half a block away from the abandoned car where
police found Bob, shot in the abdomen, slumped in the back seat. 
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
     Both Staley and Duke are convicted criminals--Staley for 
aggravated robbery and automobile theft; Duke for car theft,
burglary, and drugs.  Staley, serving a 12-year jail term in a
Denver correctional facility, had "walked away" on September 18,
barely a month before the Steak & Ale robbery.  In fact, Staley is
a suspect in the death of his prison roommate, James Davis.  Both
escaped at the same time, and Davis' decomposed body was found in
a shallow grave near Aurora, Colorado, on October 16.  Colorado
authorities believe Staley and Duke may be responsible for a wave
of armed robberies occurring across the western states in late
September and early October.  Brenda Rayburn joined the two men
after she and Duke became lovers.  Under a bond of $530,000 each,
all three are now in jail awaiting prosecution.
     What type of man was Robert Read?  Doug Wright, also a Steak
& Ale associate manager, says "he was very involved, a very
outgoing and aggressive individual."  A coworker notes, "As a
waitress, you usually have a lot of run-ins with managers, but
there was never a problem with him.  He was always fair and willing
to work with you."  
     A volunteer from the Fort Worth Symphony says she approached
Brother Read with the idea of donating a free meal to the Fort
Worth art teacher whose student won the "Music Bridges the Oceans"
art contest during Octoberfest.  As she put it, "I was just asking
for a free meal for the teacher and he said, `Why not give a meal
to each of the children who entered?'  He was a very nice man."
     It was natural that such a man should petition to join
Masonry's ranks.  In fact, Brother Robert Read, age 35, petitioned
Polytechnic Masonic Lodge in Fort Worth.  He had progressed to the
Degree of Fellowcraft before his untimely death.  In respect for
this good man and Brother, the Brethren of Polytechnic Lodge
conducted a Masonic graveside service and have contributed
generously to the Bob Read Memorial Fund set up by the Steak & Ale
Restaurant Corporation (1204 Park Central Drive, Dallas, Texas
75251) to care for Bob's widow and children.
     "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends."  John 15:13 

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