Dozens of local bikers gathered in the Fry’s Marketplace parking lot this morning to remember Maricopa Meadows motorcyclist Dustin Michael Tappe, 38, who died in a crash on Riggs Road Dec. 2. 

He was a loving husband and father of seven, including a newborn who was just a month old when he died. 

One of Dustin’s friends, Raymond Goldberg, held a prayer this morning and thanked everyone for meeting up. The motorcyclists communed with each other about their favorite memories of Dustin before revving their engines and heading northbound on State Route 347. 

From there, they took Interstate 10 to loop around to the memorial site on Riggs Road. 

Waiting at the memorial, less than a mile from SR 347, waited the Tappe family and close friends. On a white cross sat his helmet with a sticker that read, “Proud Parent of a Scholar,” his jacket, a large photo of Dustin, a plaque with his name and photo, medals and a heart-shaped balloon blowing in the wind.  

“He would have loved this,” his widow Melody Rose Tappe said through tears as the motorcyclists began arriving, dismounting their bikes and gathering tightly around her. Some of the mourners brought bouquets to put at the base of the cross. 

Melody held her youngest child, baby Destin, as his godfather, Goldberg, placed a necklace around the baby’s neck. Shaped like a cross, it contained his father’s ashes. 

“I had known him for about seven years,” Goldberg told InMaricopa. “He was blunt, he told you how it was, but he would literally do anything for you…He’s just an awesome, stand-up guy.” 

Tappe’s family members took his helmet, jacket and photo from the memorial and joined the convoy of revving motorcycles back onto State Route 347 and into Maricopa. 

Some of Melody’s last words at the memorial today: “Let’s bring him home.”