Remembering Rocky

His neighbors would see Rocky Aker riding through Greenbrook on an electric scooter much too small for him.

He didn’t care if he looked strange because it was something he loved to do with his children.

Those who saw him at Home Depot knew he would help them search for an item, even though he didn’t work there.

For an afternoon snack, he would eat orange bell peppers like they were apples.

And he would go to the gym at 10 p.m. because he first wanted to spend time with his wife of 21 years, Kristi, and their three children, Jared, 17; Alexis, 12; and Wyatt, 11.

On Jan. 16, 47-year-old William Rockwell Aker, known as “Rocky,” died when his car, which was stopped at the intersection of State Road 70 and Braden Run, was smashed from behind and flipped into oncoming traffic.

 Law enforcement officials are investigating whether the driver who hit Aker was impaired by alcohol. The toxicology report is pending.

Aker was on his way to see a movie with his family.

“It’s still not real,” Kristi Aker said. “I keep thinking he’ll walk through the door. I see him in his brothers — their voices sound the same. That’s the only way we can get through it.”

Aker realized his dream of helping others when he opened Rocky Aker Chiropractic on Gulf Gate Drive in Sarasota in 1995.

 “There was not a negative bone in his body. He was a positive person we all learned from. He loved to help people,” Kristi’s dad, Jerry Markham, said.

Friend Jeanie Glass, who worked with Aker in 2011, remembered that at his practice, if patients showed up without appointments, he didn’t turn them away.

“He never whined about anything,” Glass said. “His optimism was rare and precious. You knew he would always do the right thing, the fair thing, the honest thing.”

Friend and co-worker Judy Monson, a massage therapist who referred more than 80% of her patients to Akers, said he made everyone he met feel special.

“You never saw him not beaming — and I mean beaming, not just smiling,” she said. “He emitted happiness from his core.”

Friends and family members said he was a hands-on dad who coached football, never quit at anything and was a chiropractor who at times cared for patients at no charge.

“He was so many things,” Kristi Aker said. “He was the kind of guy who would go out of his way for anything for anybody.”

Rocky Aker had been on the phone with his wife just 10 minutes before the crash. He had gone to the wrong movie theater and was heading to the Carmike Royal Palm 20 movie theater to meet up with his family, albeit a little late.

A half-hour later, Aker still hadn’t arrived. When the movie ended, and Kristi Aker headed home, she was still trying to be optimistic. But as she approached the intersection of State Road 70 and Braden Run, she saw the police car lights flashing. She couldn’t see the vehicles in the crash, but in her heart, she knew.

Her eldest son, Jared, drove back toward the scene. He answered when his mom called. He couldn’t tell her.

“In the front yard, I saw two police cars. I knew they were coming,” Kristi Aker said.

Kristi Aker isn’t sure of the “what next?” Everything in the Aker’s home is a reminder of the past 15 years there — the blinds he hung, family photos, the Jacuzzi attached to the pool and the patio around it that he designed to make sure the kids had a place to play.

Wyatt and Alexis are heading back to school at McNeal Elementary and Nolan Middle schools, respectively, but Kristi said she is not quite ready to return to work at McNeal, where she works in the office.

She hopes Rocky’s life can be an inspiration to others.

“I want people to learn from him,” Kristi Aker said of her husband’s positive, caring and family-first personality. “I want his life to mean something to people, because it did to us.”

“Don’t take it for granted,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if the laundry isn’t folded or the dishes are dirty. Just sit down with your kids and your husband or wife and enjoy them.”