Dan Gordon Bellue was born on the 17th of December in 1944, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in Arkansas and Michigan and came to Texas to attend Baylor University, where he met his wife and love of his life, Judy, formerly Judith Blackwood of Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Baylor with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and was commissioned into the United States Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. From there he was sent to Texas A&M University to attend the US Air Force Basic Meteorology Training Program. This began a career in the field of meteorology that spanned over 40 years. His daughter, Erin, was born while Dan and Judy were at Texas A&M. From there they moved to England, where he served as a Weather Officer at RAF Wethersfield. While stationed at Wethersfield their son, Kyle, was born. Dan left active duty in the Air Force and returned to the United States to attend graduate school at Texas A&M to complete a Masters of Science degree in Meteorology. Dan maintained his affiliation with the military reserves through the Texas Air National Guard. Upon graduation, Dan took a job with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in New Orleans and worked in Weather Forecast Offices in San Antonio and Fort Worth, as well as the Air Route Traffic Control Center and the Southern Region Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1984 Dan accepted a job at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake City, Texas providing weather support to the Space Shuttle program. After serving 22 years and 104 Space Shuttle missions, Dan retired from civil service. Dan also retired as an Air Force Colonel in the Texas Air National Guard on 17 December 2004. Upon retirement, Dan fulfilled a life-long dream of teaching math and science in a Christian school and taught high school physics at McKinney Christian Academy and aviation meteorology at LeTourneau University. While Dan liked to golf, spend time at the gun range and not complete several woodworking projects in the garage, he loved to give of himself in serving his family, his students, and his local body of believers. At McKinney Christian Academy, Dan was affectionately known as “The Colonel”.
Dan is survived by his loving wife, Judy, his daughter, Erin, his son, Kyle, daughter-in-law, Jeannene, precious granddaughters, Laynie and Addison, his brother John Bellue who lives in West Virginia, and several nieces, nephews and cousins. In Dan’s last biography he wrote the following sentence that beautifully encapsulates the life he lived, the God he served and the legacy he left behind:
“Through it all, we have seen God’s provision and protection for our family and where ever we have gone, we have always found loving church families and places to serve Him.”
