Jack Crusher Lieutenant Commander Jack R . Crusher was a Starfleet officer . Considered by Jean - Luc Picard to have been his best friend , he served under Picard ' s command on the . He was husband to Beverly Crusher and father to Wesley Crusher . He was killed on an away mission in 2353 . ( ) Personal . Jack was introduced to Beverly sometime in the 2340s by mutual friend Walker Keel . ( ) It took month s for Beverly to figure out her attraction to Jack . ( ) He proposed to her in 2348 through a gag gift , a book entitled " How to Advance Your Career Through Marriage " . ( ) Their son , Wesley , was born in 2348 . Jack recorded a holographic message to Wesley shortly after his birth , intending it as a present for when Wesley reached his eighteenth birthday . Jack wanted to make a series of messages , but only completed one . ( ) When his son Wesley was young , Crusher taught him about baseball . ( ) The family took a camping trip to Balfour Lake sometime before his death in 2353 . During the trip , Wesley amused himself by throwing manta leaves into the fire and watching them pop . This prompted a response from Jack . Beverly was telling this story to Picard in 2370 , but was interrupted before she could tell him what Jack said . ( ) The Crushers spent much time with Jean - Luc Picard , resulting in Picard developing an attraction towards Beverly . He never acted on his feelings even after Jack ' s death , feeling to do so would betray his friend . ( ) " In an alternate future timeline , Jean - Luc and Beverly did get married but subsequently divorced . " ( ) Death . Crusher was killed on an away mission while serving on the " Stargazer " . ( ) His death was considered an accident . ( ) It also involved a choice of life and death made by Picard , which resulted in Wesley having to make a similar choice at his " psych test " during his first application to Starfleet Academy . ( ) Picard personally returned Jack ' s body to Beverly and Wesley ( ) . Picard accompanied Beverly to view Jack in the morgue on Starbase 32 . When Beverly was mentally assaulted by the Ullian Jev in 2368 , she was forced to revisit this event . ( ) When Beverly asked Picard to describe Wesley , he said , " " He ' s his father ' s son . Honest , trusting , strong . " " ( ) In 2367 , Beverly brought several of Jack ' s personal belongings out of storage and aboard the , including " How to Advance Your Career Through Marriage " and the computer chip containing the holographic recording . She gave it to Wesley and he watched the recording on the holodeck . ( ) While on a vision quest on the Native American world of Dorvan V , Wesley saw his father . The vision told him that the quest which Wesley had been on – following Jack ' s death – was now ended , and that Wesley must now find his own path . ( ) Appendices . Background information . According to the for " Family " , Jack Crusher was about twenty - four years old in 2348 , placing his birth in or around 2324 . Apocrypha . In the Peter David novel " Q - Squared " , an alternate timeline is witnessed in which Jack Crusher is captain of the " Enterprise " after he took command of the " Stargazer " during its final mission and Picard was summarily demoted , although Jack and Beverly have divorced due to Wesley dying after falling out of a tree . In the course of the novel , Trelane reveals to this alternate Jack that he only survives in one timeline of all the timelines that exist in the multiverse order ; in other words , he is alone , compared to the infinite copies of his friend , Jean - Luc Picard , and his ex , Beverly Howard . Through a series of events manipulated by Trelane , including the implication that Wesley died solely so that the universe could bring Picard and Beverly together - as well as Trelane ' tweaking ' Jack ' s mind so that he believes Picard let him die in the ' main ' universe on purpose rather than as an accident - this Jack Crusher goes insane and kills himself after killing his world ' s Beverly in front of the ' canon ' Beverly , destroying the only living version of Jack Crusher in all existence ( this is debatable , however , since Trelane seems to have been purposefully tormenting Jack in order to further the chaos of merging timelines ) .