Gordon 'Mac' Southby, an 18-year-old senior at Glastonbury High School, was killed in a crash with an SUV on Sunday in Glastonbury that also killed 15-year-old SUV passenger Andra Spencer. (Courtesy of H. Veronica Southby)

Gordon “Mac” Southby was on his way home for the night after stopping to get a bite to eat.

He had spent the day helping a man fix his car. With the $40 the man gave him for the job, he decided to reward himself with a cheeseburger. He ate it and then he ventured off on his motorcycle to head home, according to his mother Veronica Southby.

He did not make it. The 18-year-old senior at Glastonbury High School was killed in a crash with an SUV that also killed 15-year-old SUV passenger Andra Spencer, a junior at Bacon Academy in Colchester.

“He was a really good, all-American kid. Better than that even,” Southby said of her son. “He was an Eagle Scout. And he was obeying his mama’s curfew and was on his way home for 7:30 family evening prayers. He had that good-all-over feeling you get when you’ve just had a burger. And he loved riding his motorcycle, so he died doing what he loves. On the sunset of, unbelievably, his last day at age 18.”

The cheeseburger was the last thing he talked to his mom about, and it was the last time she saw him, she said.

Later that night, around 75 of Southby’s friends and classmates showed up at his home on Heritage Drive with lit candles, she said.

“They left 75 candles all around my home, all around the front door and the walkway,” Southby said. “They’re all still there. It’s just beautiful as can be. He attracted the most lovely people for friends.”

Following Mac Southby's death, his mother said friends and classmates showed up at his home on Heritage Drive with lit candles. (Courtesy of H. Veronica Southby)

He loved working on motorcycles and dirt bikes. He often rode them with his friends at private fields in town, Southby said. He spent hours fixing bikes and building them for other kids, even if they did not have large sums of money to spend on them, she said.

Southby said she still has five motorcycles in her garage that Mac was still fixing. She said Mac’s younger brother, Augie, will likely be the one to finish fixing the bikes.

He also loved riding, which came under police scrutiny at times. According to court records, Southby had two pending cases for alleged reckless driving and driving without a license, among other charges, in January and May 2022. The two cases have since been dismissed due to his death, according to the Glastonbury Police Department. Veronica Southby heavily refuted the merits of these cases. She said he had taken a motorcycle safety course and had completed the proper permits.

Glastonbury police said Sunday’s crash is still under investigation, and a report was not available detailing the incident or what occurred.

Mac’s best friend, Thomas Brunette, said much of the time they spent together was on or around motorcycles and dirt bikes. The two were working on Mac’s until midnight the night before he died when Brunette’s mother told them to wrap it up for the night. It was the last time the two spoke.

“I don’t think he’s gone,” Brunette said. “And he’s not. He is always going to be with me.”

Mac Southby’s best friend, Thomas Brunette, said much of the time they spent together was on or around motorcycles and dirt bikes. (Courtesy of H. Veronica Southby)

Mac was in the Boy Scouts from the time he was 7 years old and started out as a tiger cub, his mom said. He earned his Eagle Scout honor in Feb. 2020, according to the Boy Scouts of America.

“He was probably everything a Boy Scout should be, everything,” Brunette, a fellow Boy Scout, said. “Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”

Brunette and Southby were not in the same troop, but it was something they connected over after Mac moved to Glastonbury for freshman year at Glastonbury High School, Brunette said.

“He’s taught me so many things that I use in my daily life so much,” Brunette said. “And that’s how I’m going to remember him.”

Southby was a senior at Glastonbury. He planned to join the Navy and wanted to become a Navy SEAL, according to his mother. Then he wanted to go to engineering school, she said.

“He had it in him, he really did,” Brunette said.

Veronica Southby is a retired military nurse, working for both the Navy and Air Force. Both of his parents were sailors. His late father, Gary Southby, was a member of the Santa-Cruz Yacht Club. Gary and Veronica Southby won the C-Class Division America’s Schooner Cup Race every year from 1998 to 2001, according to Gary Southby’s obituary.

Mac Southby planned to join the Navy and wanted to become a Navy SEAL, according to his mother. He also earned his Eagle Scout honor in Feb. 2020. (Courtesy of H. Veronica Southby)

Mac was deeply religious and sang in the choir at Christ the King Seminary, Westminster Abbey, in Mission, British Columbia, Canada, according to Southby. She said he had a beautiful voice.

Brunette said he could recall many passages from the Bible from memory.

He spent eighth grade at the seminary and a teacher of his there, Brother Maximus Spoeth, described him as funny, adventurous and a leader among his peers.

“He was not afraid of crossing boundaries,” Spoeth said. “But he also had a sensitive conscience.”

He used to start bonfires and cook hotdogs for the Marine Corps League at their monthly meetings in South Glastonbury, she said. The family will host a goodbye party at their clubhouse after his funeral.

“I am stunned at how short his life was,” Southby said. “But anyway, it’s an honor to be called home on a Sunday evening, so they say in the Catholic faith.”

Mac Southby’s funeral is scheduled for Oct. 7 from 3-6 p.m. at Farley-Sullivan Funeral Home, 50 Naubuc Avenue in Glastonbury. The goodbye party at the Marine Corps League will follow. A Catholic mass burial will be held the next day at an undetermined time.