Remembering the fallen

By JIM MANN

and CAMDEN EASTERLING

The Daily Inter Lake

Davita Bryant was considering other career choices.

Ken Good was planning to retire this winter.

Jim Long was considered a generous and competent pilot who went out of his way to fly sick children to destinations in the Northwest.

Those are among the memories cited by friends and family of the three who perished in Monday's plane crash in the Great Bear Wilderness.

Good, 58, was an electronics technician with the U.S. Forest Service for the the last 34 years, working for six years on the Custer National Forest in Billings until 1976, when he transferred to the Flathead National Forest.

"Ken was looking forward to his well deserved retirement this winter," according to the obituary submitted by his family Thursday. "Ken was devoted to his family first; his job second and had an insatiable passion for his hobbies, trains and photography."

The Whitefish resident and U.S. Army veteran was a "walking encyclopedia" on railroad history and trains. One of his proudest accomplishments was finding and refurbishing to exact detail the historic engine, GN 181, which is located at Depot Square in Whitefish. He was an active member of the Glacier Camera Club and the Stumptown Historical Society.

Bryant, 32, a crew leader for the U.S. Forest Service's Forestry Inventory and Analysis program, was excited to go on the flight, said friend Sharie McKibben.

McKibben spoke on the phone with Bryant Monday while Bryant was waiting to hear if the weather was suitable for flying.

McKibben said Bryant was considering other job possibilities and had said this might be her last season with Forest Inventory and Analysis.

Bryant's husband, Brian, also works for Forest Inventory and Analysis. He was reportedly working in the wilderness Tuesday morning when he received the news via satellite phone that his wife's plane was missing.

McKibben, a local Forest Service employee, knew the couple for three years, since she met them while working in Arizona.

Bryant was always upbeat and personable, her friend said.

"The most positive outlook on life and people - that's probably the most outstanding thing about her," McKibben said.

McKibben also knew the other Forest Service employees, though she knew Good and Jodee Hogg, one of the crash survivors, only in passing.

She described Bryant and Matthew Ramige, the other survivor, as excellent hikers who weren't bothered by the tough terrain Forest Inventory and Analysis crews must traverse.

While Good was on the flight to do maintenance work on communications equipment at the Schafer Meadows Guard Station, Bryant, Ramige and Hogg were flying in to to carry out vegetation inventories in plots that are regularly monitored by the Forestry Sciences Lab based in Ogden, Utah.

Kalispell pilot Long, 60, was well known in Flathead aviation circles and for his longtime association with Angel Flight, an organization that provides free medical flights for people who cannot afford them.

"He did a ton for Angel Flight," said Jill Holder, who works for Eagle Mount, a Bozeman-based program that provides therapeutic recreation opportunities for children with cancer.

For at least five years, Holder said, Long provided flights for many children participating in the Eagle Mount program.

"We bring kids in from a 500-mile radius," Holder said. "A lot of times we didn't have pilots available and he would always come to the rescue."

In addition to being Angel Flight's Montana wing leader, Long was active in the Civil Air Patrol, he served on the Glacier Park International Airport board of directors, he was a flight instructor and he was active in the Flathead Valley's Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Long, the retired vice president of a chemical technology company, started working as a pilot for Edwards Jet Center at the beginning of the summer, said Jim Thomas, the Kalispell manager for Edwards.

"He was a wonderful guy. Very pleasant. Very bright. He had a Ph.D. in chemistry. He was a very competent pilot," Thomas said.

The plane crash came as an "absolute shock" to the staff at Edwards Jet Center, Thomas said. "He was a very competent pilot. It was just a tragedy really. Everybody is numb right now. It's hard to comprehend."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com