Chandler Keller

Skiing, surfing, white-water rafting--he lived with gusto. And Chandler “Chad” Keller’s work also entailed a measure of testing nature’s limits: The 29-year-old was a propulsion engineer at Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo. He’d been in Washington on business.

“He had very little fear of anything and he lived his life on the edge. He did everything like that,” said his father, Richard Keller of Del Mar.

He loved rockets as a kid, and spent many a night in Manhattan Beach launching them with his father. The family also lived in Hong Kong, Australia and New York City before returning to Southern California. He graduated from a Torrance high school and went to college in Colorado, where he studied aerospace engineering.

“He was a happy person, someone everyone loved to be around,” said his wife, Lisa Hurley Keller. They were married last year.

He’s also survived by his mother and two brothers.