HUDSON - John Drake's deep voice was great for belting out rock songs with his friends. Karaoke was one of his favorite ways to unwind after a day at work.
It was after such an evening Friday when the 29-year-old stepped out onto U.S. 19, into the path of a Ford Explorer.
He was pronounced dead soon afterward at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point.
"We were just having a good time and just kicking back after a long week," said Jill DuBay, a longtime friend and co-worker.
They worked together at a company in Clearwater, selling online software that helped professionals get trained and certified in computer technology. Drake was known there, DuBay said, as a smart, hard worker who was good at what he did and kept a positive attitude doing it.
"He was a golden boy," DuBay said. "He liked the job because he could actually help people."
Drake kept his suits and shirts pressed, his hair perfect, his nose to the grindstone at work.
"This guy ironed," DuBay said. But he could leave it behind and cut loose with his friends, she said.
Drake lived with his parents in New Port Richey. He also left behind a brother and sister and two children from different relationships, DuBay said.
"He was just amazing with his children," she said. "He loved his kids more than anything in the world."
He also doted on the children of his girlfriend, Rebecca Arnold, 23, who was also with him before the crash Friday.
"He probably had the biggest heart of anybody I've ever met in my entire life," Arnold said. She and Drake had been dating for a couple of months. They were planning to move in together. Drake also had talked of going back to school to get a business degree.
He was a wrestler who also loved football and baseball.
"He was very athletic and very into working out," DuBay said. "He liked to lift weights and be strong."
She doesn't know why he stepped onto the highway about midnight Friday as he and his friends were breaking up to go home.
The driver of the Explorer, Wayne J. Dugas of Spring Hill, was not charged.
