LAKE STEVENS — Cecil Elsner was always on the go, but was never too busy for others.
The avid sky diver and skier, who packed parachutes at Harvey Field, also packed everything he could into his young life, juggling college classes, work and his passion for adventure.
“You just don’t feel alive unless you’re pushing yourself to the edge … and when you’re there: Jump. Just be sure to have a parachute on your back,” Elsner wrote in a journal that his sister found at their father’s Lake Stevens home this week.
Elsner, 20, was among the nine Snohomish-based sky divers and pilot who were killed in a plane crash in the Cascades on Oct. 7.
The Western Washington University English student leaves behind a twin brother, Trevor; a sister, Jenny, 16; and his parents, Jan and Steve.
This morning, they are expected to join family and friends at memorial to remember the young man who touched many lives with his humor, caring, zest for life and wit.
While tears will undoubtably fall, they’ll likely be accompanied with laughs.
While a deep thinker in many ways, Elsner was also capable of levity, doing impersonations from the Jim Carrey comedy “Dumb &Dumber.”
“He brought love and laughter to everyone he met,” Jan Elsner said. “But his mission is not done.”
Elsner’s mother said the way he lived will serve as an inspiration for others to live more fully.
Steve Elsner encouraged his sons to pick up sky diving when the boys were 16. He took dozens of jumps with them before suffering a stroke in 2004.
On one jump in those early days, Cecil’s parachute didn’t open.
As Steve Elsner nervously watched, his son started spinning thousands of feet above the ground.
The teenager remained focused, disconnecting his main parachute so his reserve parachute would not get tangled.
“It just amazed me about how calm he was about things like that,” Steve Elsner said.
Terri Anyan, who chaperoned a trip to Greece that her daughter and Cecil Elsner took during their senior year, said, “Cecil was like a bright shining light.” When he missed Anyan’s 50th birthday party that year, he showed up a week later on her porch with a dozen yellow roses. “He was such a sweet kid,” she said.
Elsner’s grandmother, Jeanne Long of Everett, cooked a vegetable stir fry for him during a surprise visit last month.
Elsner shared with Long a reflective essay that he wrote, delving into his understanding of life and death, world religions and his place in the universe.
“He was an introspective young man, very in tune with himself, and eager and anxious to learn more about life,” Long said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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