By Brian Kelly and Theresa Goffredo

Herald Writers

OAK HARBOR — A week already filled with tragedy suddenly has become much worse here, as a plane crash during a sightseeing trip in Mexico claimed the lives of 19 people, including four well-known Whidbey Island residents.

John Hartley was playing in the yard with his sister’s dog, Molly, when he got a call Wednesday evening from Holland America saying his sister was dead. Mary E. Kearney and three other Whidbey Island residents — Dwight Mitchell, Lois Mitchell and Ted Zylstra — died when their twin engine turboprop plane crashed into a field and exploded.

"I was dead already," Hartley said. "I was numb to start with. To hear this, it’s just …"

Sixteen tourists, mostly from the Seattle area, two pilots and a tour guide died in the crash, which was part of a seven-day "Husky Legend Tailgate at Sea" oceanliner cruise planned around the University of Washington-Miami football game. The Saturday game was postponed following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

Dwight Mitchell, a former Oak Harbor City Council member, was a retired mechanic. His wife, Lois, a longtime teacher at Oak Harbor High School, was also retired. Zylstra, a member of one of Oak Harbor’s pioneering Dutch families, was the senior partner of an established law firm in Oak Harbor.

Also on the trip was Al Koetje, who served as Oak Harbor’s mayor for 25 years. He decided not to go on the ill-fated air tour over the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza.

Kearney, 57, has lived in Oak Harbor since 1993, moving in with her parents to take care of them in their twilight years. A former human resources executive who got her start organizing Continental Trailways exhibits at world fairs in the early 1960s, she was a Seattle University graduate but a Husky fan because her mother attended UW in the 1930s.

Hartley said his sister, eight years his senior, was his mentor, counselor and best friend.

"I got a lot of questions I’d like to ask right now, and I don’t have that person to go to," he said.

"Mary was very intelligent, very logical. She was very compassionate. I never heard her say a mean word about anybody. She was a great American woman."

Zylstra, a lawyer who has practiced in Oak Harbor since 1957, was a semiretired senior partner of Zylstra, Beeksma, Waller &Dale.

"Even as a high school student, I knew who Ted Zylstra was in the community. He was an important guy," said Mike Waller, a partner in the firm.

Zylstra, 67, was an avid boater, traveler and Civil War buff. He served on the board of governors for the state bar association in the mid-1980s, a considerable achievement for an attorney from such a small community.

Young attorneys often sought his advice, and Zylstra was eager to give it, Waller said.

"Although he knew more than you did and had more experience, he would never talk down to younger lawyers. He would treat them with respect, that’s what he was all about."

Zylstra, 67, was also a former president of the Oak Harbor Rotary and the Oak Harbor Navy League.

"Ted was an excellent lawyer, but his circle of friends was wide and varied. He got along with all types of people," Waller said. "He just was one of those people who had a lot of interests and was good at a lot of things, not just lawyering."

Two of the tourists killed in the crash had strong ties in Snohomish County.

Barbara E. Martin, 56, was a longtime teacher at Meadowdale Middle School in Lynnwood. And passenger Larry Wade, 60, was an engineer known for his work in Marysville, including the State Avenue redesign project.

His wife, Judith Wade, also died in the crash. She was in her late 50s.

Larry Wade was known as Marysville’s "father of collection," as in sewage collection. But the moniker would have made Wade proud, friends say.

Designing wastewater treatment facilities, fish-friendly street projects and large-scale utility systems was Wade’s life. And he spent the last 30 years designing and renovating Marysville’s infrastructure.

"There are few major projects that don’t have Larry’s fingerprints all over them," said Doug Buell, the city’s community information officer. "He was a bastion of engineering for this town for a long time."

Wade was an avid Husky fan and UW alum. Marysville city engineer Robin Nelson called Wade an inspiration and "the father of the collection system and utility system in Marysville."

Nelson recalled a Labor Day weekend in 1999, when Larry and Judy took their boat out to Friday Harbor and on the return trip, capsized at the south tip of Whidbey Island during a sudden storm. While in the water, Larry suffered a heart attack, but the couple managed to make it to their lifeboat.

"What I’ll remember most was his drive and enthusiasm — Larry was a lover of life," Nelson said.

You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to kelly@heraldnet.com.