List of Star Trek: The Next Generation characters

Lieutenant Commander Jack R. Crusher was portrayed by actor Doug Wert. Dead before the series' beginning, Crusher is the late husband to Beverly Crusher, the father of Wesley Crusher and the former second officer (third in command) aboard the USS ''Stargazer'', Jean-Luc Picard's first command. He was killed in action at the age of 32, for which Picard blamed himself until Beverly Crusher first reported on the USS ''Enterprise''. Crusher assured Picard she had signed on the ''Enterprise''-D voluntarily and not due to Picard's influence.

Jack Crusher once made a holographic recording of himself in which he explained his life and recent happenings to his son Wesley shortly after his birth. Crusher intended this to be the first in a series of messages, one every couple of years, but due to his death, only one recording was made. By the time Wesley first got to view the recording, Jack was already long dead.

In the seventh season episode "Journey's End", Jack appears before his son Wesley Crusher in a vision quest in which he encourages Wesley to find his own path. Wesley takes the vision of his father as a sign and resigns from Starfleet Academy in order to explore the galaxy with a powerful being known as the Traveler. Provided by Wikipedia