ARVADA, Colo. -- A beloved Arvada pastor who overcame cancer, then decided to place a bible at the summit of the tallest peak on each continent, died late last week after scaling the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

Pastor Vince Bousselaire and several partners were descending from the east side of the Swiss mountain when a storm moved in. Bousselaire and Carolyn Randall fell -- both died.

"He was very special," said Bousselaire's wife, Connie. "I loved him to pieces. We were married almost 34 years. He was my friend, my buddy and I'm going to miss him."

The assistant pastor at Arvada's Faith Bible Chapel was an 11-year cancer survivor.

"He had Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma," his wife said.

Connie Bousseliare added that her husband wasn't the type to complain. "He never said why me? He would say why not me? Why should it be you, why should it be anyone else? It is what it is. Let's figure out how to get rid of it and get on with life."

He beat the cancer, then decided to get into shape.

"He ran marathons, went skiing and took up mountain climbing," said daughter Janelle Bazar.

He encouraged his loved ones to become healthier.

"We ate salads for months, with carrot juice," Bazar said.

Bousselaire often asked his loved ones to accompany him. They often did, but not all the time.

His daughter, Nicole Sax, remembers one of the times they didn’t. "At 3 a.m. he got up and was like, ‘noboby's going to play with me so I'm going to go up by myself.’ So he hiked a mountain one day by himself because he felt like he needed to," Sax said.

"It's just a testament to his character that he could set goals and then achieve them," Bazar added.

One of the goals Bousselaire set was to climb every 14'er in Colorado. After accomplishing that, he set out to climb the tallest peak on each of the seven continents. He took a bible up to each peak.

"He didn't make it all the way up to Everest because he suffered pulmonary edema and nearly died. So he had a climbing partner, who was Jewish, take the bible up to the summit of Everest for him," Connie said.

"He was a warrior," said son-in-law Aaron Bazar. "Somebody you respect."

"He was always ready to offer a helping hand," added neighbor Troy McDonald. "Before he went to Switzerland, he helped a neighbor girl learn to ride her bike. He was out there running up and down the street with her for probably an hour, until she learned to go on two wheels. That's the type of guy he was."

Bousselaire's wife said she didn't like him climbing all those mountains, but added that he was so irrepressible that she couldn't stop him. "I loved him and wanted him to love life," she said.

"They (fellow climbers) said he was incredibly happy (on the Matterhorn) and had a fantastic time," Connie said. "He fell to his death during a storm, and I can't think of a better way for him to go -- doing what he loved."

A memorial service for Bousselaire will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, at Faith Bible Chapel, 6210 Ward Road in Arvada. Memories of Vince can be sent to LegacyofVince@gmail.com. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been set up at Faith Bible Chapel.