Friends remember bicyclist killed on Virginia Tech’s campus

Flowers mark the spot where Bonnie Tinker, 61, was hit by a dump truck at the intersection of West Campus Drive and Drillfield Drive on Virginia Tech’s campus Thursday afternoon.

Tinker, who was from Portland, Oregon, had been in Blacksburg all week for a conference for Quakers called the “Religious Society of Friends.“

On Friday, the more than 1,300 Quakers attending the conference were trying to deal with her death during the last full day of their gathering.

“It is an extraordinary loss, because she was so good in not only living what she believed, but being the public voice,“ Traci Hjelt Sullivan said. “She was a woman of extraordinary integrity and a model for a lot of us who find it easier to say one thing but not always to live it.”

Friends say Tinker was an advocate for gay and lesbian families and even founded a group called “Love Makes a Family.“

“She herself has been partners since 1977 with Sara Graham in a marriage that was denied legal recognition,“ Hjelt Sullivan said.

She and her partner had three kids, and she devoted her life to many causes, but one in particular.

“[She wanted to make] it safe for her son and other children to mention the fact he has two mothers.“

As members of the conference mourn the loss of Tinker, they are concerned about another attendee—a 22 year old from Pennsylvania who was also hurt Thursday in a skate boarding accident on campus.  Conference leaders say the man is now in stable condition.

Singing and other activities were back on schedule Friday after being canceled Thursday night.  The conference ends Saturday.