Topeka ? Friends, family and comrades remembered Col. Mike O’Toole on Thursday for his selfless service, his big heart and his humor.

More than 1,300 people gathered at Topeka’s Grace Episcopal Cathedral to say goodbye to O’Toole, commander of the 190th Air Refueling Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard.

O’Toole, 51, was killed Friday when the single-engine Cessna 182 he was flying crashed shortly after takeoff from a private airstrip near his home in rural Shawnee County. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

His wife, Pam, and the couple’s 25-year-old daughter, Shannon, were also on board the plane, of which O’Toole was a part owner. They survived the crash with injuries and attended the service, at which another daughter, Erin English, talked about her father.

“I can’t imagine him going any other way,” English said. “He was flying and he saved our family.”

English recalled coming home from college once and bantering with her father about the cost of raising children and sending them to school. She said her father turned serious and commented that he was rich because he had his children.

“‘If they say anything about me when I die, I want them to say I was a good father,”‘ English quoted him as saying. “And I stand before you today to tell you he was a good father to us.”

Maj. Gen. Greg Gardner, state adjutant general, announced that O’Toole has received the Legion of Merit, one of the military’s highest honors, for his years of service. Lt. Gen. Baker, of the Air Force Air Mobility Command, presented O’Toole’s widow with the medal.

O’Toole was buried at Rochester Cemetery in north Topeka.