Thomas Jefferson Bartlett

Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Bartlett, IV, of Owensboro, was fatally injured in a sky diving accident on Friday, August 22, 2008, in Anderson Township, Ohio. He graduated from Owensboro Catholic High School in 2005 and was a senior attending the J.B. Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville. His engineering co-op work was with Samtec, where he designed connectors for computer systems. Following a family tradition of equestrian sports, he showed Hackney ponies in pleasure driving classes. T.J. made his first bungee jump at the site of the sport's inception in New Zealand in 2000, at once becoming addicted to the adrenaline rush. He started sky diving at the age of 17, and then began BASE (Building, Antenna, Span and Earth) jumping, conquering bridges, towers, buildings and the cliffs of the Moab desert in Utah. T.J. was a staff member for Bridge Day at the New River Gorge in West Virginia, a premier site for BASE jumping in the United States. His thirst for speed and motion was only temporarily slaked by his participation in the extreme sports of street luge, rock climbing, and slack line. Toasting each successful adventure with a fruit smoothie, T.J. loved to cook and had perfected the art of shrimp risotto. The hunt for a new ingredient always began with a call to his mother while navigating the aisles of the grocery store. An inveterate traveler, pacifist and adrenaline junkie, T.J. lived life to its fullest, always in search of the next adventure. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, T.J. and Dorothy Bartlett, Jr., and George Gillians.

Survivors include his parents, Thomas Jefferson "Jeff", III and Susan Gillians Bartlett of Owensboro; his sister, Katie Bartlett of Owensboro; his fiance, Nicole Engert of Windsor, Ontario, Canada; his maternal grandmother, Mary Sue Gillians of Owensboro; his aunts and uncles, Mary and Kurt Broecker, Steve and Kim Gillians, Nancy Gillians, and Beth and Kenny Ackerman; his BASE jumping and sky diving community, and many other family and friends.

Services, officiated by the Rev. Edward Bradley, the Rev. John Vaughn, and the Rev. Richard Meredith, will be 3:30 p.m. Friday, August 29, at St. Stephen Cathedral in Owensboro, Kentucky. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. Thursday and from noon until 3:00 p.m. Friday at Glenn Funeral Home, where prayers and sharing of memories will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Entombment will be in Owensboro Memorial Gardens Mausoleum. Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to Owensboro Catholic High School.