Daniel Brown is pictured at the American Legion Post 191 card night on August 21.

He was nearly everything to American Legion Post 191.

Adjutant.

Right-hand man.

Friend.

All that ended suddenly late Tuesday afternoon when the Indian motorcycle Daniel Brown was driving ran into the side of the truck that apparently pulled out in front of him.

The accident at the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and Johnson Avenue in Webster County took not simply the life of Brown, 74, of Webster City, but a bit of the heart of Post 191, where one of his closest friends, Richard Stroner, is commander.

“He was a crucial part of our Legion. Essential. I mean, him taking care of our memberships. Taking meeting notes for years and posting them. Dan took care all of that,” Stroner said Wednesday.

“We now have a large hole to fill.”

That hole doesn’t simply reflect a loss of leadership; it’s also a loss of joy.

Daniel Brown knew how to have fun.

“He loved to play cribbage,” Stroner said. “We started card nights down at the Legion in January. Every Monday he would be down there.”

In fact, he’s laughing in the last photo Steve Struchen has of him. It was taken at the August 21 card night.

“He was a great person to have as a friend because he would help you out anytime you needed assistance,” Struchen, the post’s finance officer, said.

“He headed up the veterans who maintained the Avenue of Flags displays at Graceland and Calvary cemeteries. Dan was in charge of the flag building on Ohio Street,” Struchen said.

Brown, who graduated from Fort Dodge Senior High, moved to Webster City with his wife, Pearl, after serving in Vietnam. She died in 2017.

During the Vietnam conflict he was postmaster on board an aircraft carrier in the combat zone, according to Stroner.

In the 1980s in Webster City he led Boy Scout Troop 17, both as scoutmaster and assistant. More recently, he was a member of the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association and an Izaak Walton League officer.

That all ended in the blink of an eye.

Iowa State Patrol reported that a southbound 2010 International straight truck driven by Daniel Lundberg, 57, of Lehigh, drove across the two westbound lanes of U.S. 20, then failed to yield to the eastbound lanes, pulling from the intersection into the path of Brown’s motorcycle.

It was about 4:30 in the afternoon.

Daniel Brown died at the scene.

“He had an unfulfilled goal of seeing the Freedom Rocks in all 99 counties,” Struchen said.

Brown was pronounced dead by the Webster County medical examiner. His body was taken to the state medical examiner in Ankeny for an autopsy.

Lundberg was not injured. ISP has not yet said if charges will be filed against him.

Assisting the Iowa State Patrol were members of the Webster County Sheriff’s Department and the Fort Dodge and Moorland fire departments.

The accident is still under investigation.