The smiling face of whistleblower Joshua Dean stared out from a flower-laden portrait on Thursday at a Wichita Baptist church as loved ones remembered the 45-year-old – known for faith, fierce intelligence and an incessant curiosity bordering on “annoying,” one celebrant preacher joked to the packed congregation.
Mr Dean, an avid athlete, died on 30 April after a desperate battle with a sudden illness that saw him airlifted from Kansas to Oklahoma, where he ultimately passed away. Academically gifted and the holder of multiple advanced degrees, he’d given depositions in a shareholder lawsuit against Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, where he’d previously been employed as an auditor – following the path of his stepfather, who worked at the key Wichita site for decades.
