By Pete Radowick
The Northwest Cycle Club in Houston has many fine traditions, but none is more poignant than the annual Ride of Silence that takes place on the last Saturday in November.
Ride of Silence pays reverence to the late Stafford Campbell, who was broadsided by a motorist on November 28, 2009, during a routine Saturday morning ride. Stafford, 68, was killed immediately when the motorist ran a stop sign in northwest Harris County.
On Saturday, November 26, a large throng of more than 200 bicyclists rolled out of its usual Zube Park starting point at one pace and rode, as the name implies, in silence for nine miles to Stafford’s ghost bike at the corner of Stokes Road and Waller Spring Creek Road. Once there, cyclists festooned the ghost bike with faux flowers before resuming their Saturday morning routes.
“I rode with Stafford many times,” NWCC club member Sam Joseph said. “He was always quick to volunteer with our fundraising rides or help with the new riders. If you rode with Stafford he loved to talk about his grandchildren, unless he was helping with new riders. He is sorely missed by our club.”
Frank Stafford Campbell was a retired bank executive, a financial officer for his church and an active volunteer for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He rode in the BP MS 150 ride for nearly a decade. Stafford was a NWCC member, a mentor to many and fondly remembered seven years later.
His memory will be recalled again on November 25, 2017.
Northwest Cycling Club, based in Houston, is a four-time USA Cycling Club of the Year, earning the honor in 2005, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Club members ride every Saturday morning, rain or shine. To learn more, visit NWCC.bike or like the club on Facebook.