Former Microsoft exec killed on flight lesson in Montana

Jeffery Harbers had just taken off for a flight lesson Saturday afternoon in the small town of Big Timber, Mont., where he and his wife, Renee, owned their dream ranch. It was one of many adventures the former Microsoft executive, venture capitalist and Medina resident embarked on.

It was also his last.

Harbers, 54, died after his new PC-12/47 single-engine turboprop plane crashed on private land one mile east of the Big Timber Airport and burst into flames, according to Sweet Grass County sheriff's spokeswoman Kerry O'Connell.

He was killed just after 2 p.m. Saturday, along with his flight instructor, 31-year-old Jason Barton of Enid, Okla.

"The plane burned really hot and really fast," O'Connell said. "There was no chance for survival."

Jeff Struhsker, a Seattle-based National Transportation Safety Board senior safety investigator assigned to the crash site, said it was unclear who was piloting the aircraft. Harbers was a licensed pilot but continued to take flight lessons to learn new skills, he said.

Harbers was a big name at Microsoft, where he took a job as employee number 67 in 1981 and played a key role in the development of many popular software projects for the Redmond-based company, including the first version of Office for Macintosh computers.

Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division, remembered Harbers' early work at the company as "integral" to the early development of much of its now-ubiquitous software.

"I worked with Jeff all throughout the 1980s, and the whole time he was always leading the way on something important," Raikes said. "He was an amazing engineering leader who understood what we needed to do for success and made sure it happened."

As a close friend, Raikes also remembers Harbers' hunger for adventure.

"He was an amazing guy. After graduating from the UW, he worked on the pipeline in Alaska and at a research center in Antarctica," Raikes said. "Even before he left the company, he said he wanted to be a rancher. So when he left, he purchased one and made it incredibly successful."

Renee Harbers and the couple's two children were joined by friends at the family's Montana ranch Sunday afternoon.

"He was true to his values and had lots of integrity," she said. "He really wanted to know why something was the way it was or how something worked. Anything he was interested in, he worked hard to perfect."

Vern Rayburn, former president of consumer products at Microsoft, described Harbers as "classic Microsoft — hardcore and dependable. But he was also one of the guys that everyone wanted to be around."

Harbers was an active philanthropist after leaving Microsoft, giving to Conservation International, the Boy Scouts and other local organizations, according to Dottie Hall, a family friend who spent Sunday at the Harbers' Montana ranch.

He was also an active venture capitalist, Hall said. Recently, Harbers invested in Bellevue-based Home Technologies and Renton-based Naverus.

Despite his business successes, his friends and family — including his wife, two children, a sister and three brothers — remember Harbers more for his generosity and commitment to his community.

"He was passionate about what he did, everything," Rayburn said. "He's leaving a big hole in the whole community."

Nathan Hurst: 206-464-2112 or nhurst@seattletimes.com