Los Angeles Times - 08.09.2019

B4 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019 S LATIMES.COM

Neal Baltz,

Patricia Beitzinger

Neal Baltz, an engineer from
Phoenix, loved wine and loved
making it.
After years of experimenting at
home, fermenting grapes in his
bathtub, he enrolled in an enology
program at a community college in
Northern Arizona’s Verde Valley
wine region.
He made the 1^1 ⁄ 2 -hour drive to
attend Yavapai College, working in
the vineyards and cellars, and
sometimes sleeping overnight in
his Ford F-150. At school, he joked
that he was “sleeping in a van down
by the river,” a reference to a classic
Chris Farley sketch on “Saturday
Night Live.”
Baltz was a goofy, friendly class-
mate who got along with everyone,
keeping spirits up during the early
mornings of hard physical work
that comes with running a vine-
yard, said Michael Pierce, the di-
rector of enology and viticulture at
the Southwest Wine Center, who
taught six of Baltz’s classes. Once
during a bottling session, he said,
Baltz put corks over his eyes and
ran through the cellar, pretending
to be an alien.
“He’s one of those people who
was an absolute pleasure to know,”
Pierce said. “He went through life
with joy.”
Baltz, 42, worked as an engineer
for a semiconductor company and
had studied electrical engineering
at the University of Texas at Austin
and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
After Baltz finished his enology
program, he endowed a schol-
arship for the school, a nontradi-
tional campus where the average
student age is 48. He also gave
more than $5,000 to help renovate
an old racquetball court into a
winemaking center.
The school had expected Baltz
on campus Tuesday night to make
a presentation on wines from
Washington, where he had recently
traveled, Pierce said. The instruc-
tor already had his presentation in
hand, Pierce said.
Baltz and his longtime girl-
friend, Patricia Beitzinger, lived in
the Ahwatukee Foothills in south-
ern Phoenix and loved to explore
the world together. Their diving
trips had taken them to Microne-
sia, Fiji and the Caribbean Nether-
lands. On his YouTube page, he
had shared dozens of videos of
mountain biking, skiing and diving
expeditions in the Caribbean, Gulf
of Mexico and Channel Islands.
“He loved so many things,”
Pierce said. “He loved the ocean, he
loved his dogs, he loved Patricia.
We are a small community. It’s a
huge loss for us.”
Beitzinger, 48, worked as a nu-
tritionist at an endocrinology prac-
tice. She was encouraging and en-
thusiastic as she coached people
on how to eat better and lose
weight, and regaled her patients
with travel stories, said Dan and
Linda Reynolds, who saw
Beitzinger for five years.
“Unfailingly, she was smiling,”
Linda Reynolds said. “She was so
energetic, and lively, and funny —
someone that you wanted to spend
time with.”
After the dive trip to the Chan-
nel Islands, Beitzinger planned to
go to Komodo in Indonesia. The
couple had also gone swimming
with stingrays on Socorro Island in
Mexico, explored caves in Hawaii,
hiked to Machu Picchu and white-
water rafted in the Grand Canyon.
Their travels took them to Egypt,
Iceland, the Galapagos and Hon-
duras.
“The two of them, you could just
read the joy on their faces,” Reyn-

olds said. “It was just part of who

they were.”

— Laura J. Nelson

Raymond Scott Chan,

Kendra Chan

Scott Chan shared his love of

scuba diving with his daughter,

Kendra, who often accompanied

him on expeditions in the Channel

Islands. One photo shared by their

family showed father and daughter

grinning next to a Christmas tree,

sporting new diving gear.

“You don’t expect to have a

child that dies before you,” said

Vicki Moore, Kendra’s mother and

Scott’s partner, in an interview

with KTVU-TV of Oakland.

Scott Chan, 59, graduated from

Stanford and worked in Silicon

Valley as an electrical engineer for

two decades before starting a sec-

ond career as a high school teacher

in the Bay Area, bringing “experi-

ence from research laboratories,

and the electronics, computer, and

high-performance automotive in-

dustries into the classroom,” he

wrote in his LinkedIn profile.

At American High School, his

students “knew him to be an inno-

vative and inspiring teacher who

developed a passion for physics

among his students,” said Brian

Killgore, a spokesman for the Fre-

mont Unified School District.

Kendra Chan, 26, was a biolo-

gist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service in Ventura. She lived in Ox-

nard.

“I was so proud, so proud of her

and all that she was doing,” Moore

said. “She was absolutely an amaz-

ing young woman.”

In a video produced by the

agency last year for Women’s His-

tory Month, Kendra Chan said she

grew up diving in the Channel Is-

lands with her father and loved ski-

ing, hiking and camping. She de-

scribed her love for the marine

world, including watching “all the

tiny little creatures come alive” on

rocks and kelp holdfasts.

“Just get outside,” she said.

“Get involved. Work on citizen sci-

ence projects. Volunteer some-

where. You don’t have to be a biolo-

gist on paper to be a scientist in

real life.”

— Laura J. Nelson

Justin Dignam

Justin Dignam’s love of the wa-

ter dated back decades. He was a

four-year varsity swimmer and wa-

ter polo player in college, coached

the men’s water polo teams at Wes-

leyan University and Iona College

and continued to compete in water

polo tournaments into his 50s.

Dignam, 58, was the founder

and chief executive of Big Fish Em-

ployer Services, a payroll company

in Placentia. The company’s presi-

dent said in an email that the staff

was “shocked and horrified” at his

death. Dignam founded the com-

pany out of his house in Anaheim

Hills in 2003, according to a story

last year in the California Business

Journal.

USA Water Polo’s chief execu-

tive, Christopher Ramsey, said in a

statement that Dignam was a fa-

miliar face, appearing at golf tour-

naments, Hall of Fame inductions

and other events. This July, Dig-

nam passed out medals at the Jun-

ior Olympics in Irvine, he said, “sa-

voring the smiles and encouraging

everyone to give it their all — just

like he did.”

— Laura J. Nelson

Berenice Felipe,

Tia Salika-Adamic,

Steve Salika,

Diana Adamic

Tia Salika-Adamic, a high

school student from Santa Cruz,

boarded the Conception with her

close friend Berenice Felipe and

her parents — Steve Salika and Di-

ana Adamic — to celebrate her 17th

birthday.

Steve Salika, 55, worked at Ap-

ple Inc. for three decades and met

Adamic there, said Deirdre O’Bri-

en, the company’s senior vice presi-

dent of retail and people. She said

his “energy and enthusiasm tou-

ched so many people across our

company throughout his career.”

When Jennifer Morales started

working at Apple in 2001, she

passed by Salika’s office fre-

quently. She recalled him as a big,

burly guy who was always willing to

help. Salika worked on quality as-

surance for major projects, she

said, including the iPad and the

first Apple TV.

“He had this crazy pouf of hair,

and these enormous Robert Irvine

biceps and these round glasses,”

she said. “He had such patience,

and he had this great big huge

booming laugh. If you could make

him laugh, that was the extra pay-

off.”

The family loved diving, trav-

eling to Fiji and the Caribbean

Netherlands to explore reefs and

other marine life. They encouraged

their daughter’s love of the ocean

from an early age, taking her on ex-

cursions to learn how to snorkel

and dive.

Adamic, 60, volunteered at the

Santa Cruz County Animal Shel-

ter, where she was remembered as

compassionate, honest and inclu-

sive. She worked to find resolu-

tions among the most difficult of

relationships, said Jen Walker, a

former humane educator at the an-

imal shelter, in a statement.

“She was an ally to all living

things — orphan kittens, wild

birds, youth volunteers — and a

champion for the natural world

around us,” Walker said.

The two girls attended Pacific

Collegiate, a Santa Cruz charter

school for students in seventh

through 12th grades, according to a

letter sent to parents. Berenice had

previously been honored by the

school for her work in plant scien-

ce, according to the school’s Face-

book page.

Tia and Berenice both volun-

teered at the animal shelter, too,

helping to care for foster kittens

and keeping homeless cats and

dogs company, Walker said. She

said that Berenice’s “calm and

easygoing manner was a true gift

that she shared with us.”

— Laura J. Nelson

and Colleen Shalby

Lisa Fiedler

Lisa Fiedler worked as a hair-

dresser in Mill Valley in the Bay

Area. In her free time, she pursued

her passion for nature photogra-

phy, traveling extensively in the

West and to Holland, China, Tibet

and Guatemala.

“Everybody loved her,” Fiedler’s

mother, Nancy Fiedler, said in an

interview with KGO-TV. “She was

a kind, gentle person. She loved na-

ture.”

Her photos captured the peace

and beauty of nature, including

crisp images of hummingbirds in

flight, dewdrops clinging to spi-

derwebs, and sunsets across stun-

ning mountain ranges.

“Nature is ever changing and al-

ways slightly different, begging to

be eternally appreciated,” Fiedler

wrote on her website.

Last year, Fiedler, 52, traveled

to Cozumel, Mexico, with World-

wide Diving Adventures, the same

company that led the Labor Day

weekend excursion on the Concep-

tion. She wrote on Facebook about

the joy of finishing her deepest

scuba dive ever in an underwater

cave formation called Devil’s

Throat.

“Petting an octopus on a night

dive was another highlight,” she

wrote. “Wish I could stay here for-

ever.”

— Laura J. Nelson

Kristy Finstad

Kristy Finstad first swam the

waters of California’s Channel Is-

lands as a toddler, tucked under

her father’s arm. The 41-year-old

marine biologist had since re-

turned hundreds of times to the

area’s swaying kelp forests and ar-

rays of coral.

On Aug. 30, Finstad boarded

the Conception to help lead an ex-

pedition for her family’s scuba div-

ing company. After the fire broke

out, Finstad was among those un-

accounted for.

“She’s extremely strong-willed

and very adventurous,” said her

brother, Brett Harmeling, 31. “If

there was a 1% chance of her mak-

ing it, she would have made it.”

Finstad had worked as a re-

search diver for the Australian In-

stitute of Marine Science and

wrote a restoration guidebook for

the California Coastal Commis-

sion. She had dived in the area near

Santa Cruz Island often, and the

trip was one of the company’s most

popular, Harmeling said.

“She has an extraordinary

depth of knowledge,” Harmeling

said. “She has a passion for the

Earth, and a love for marine life.”

Finstad and her husband re-

cently had returned from a multi-

year sailing trip through the Pa-

cific. In a blog on the company’s

website, she chronicled the beauty

and monotony of life on the ocean,

“her colors changing, her energy

moody with moon tide currents,

thundering waves and glassy re-

flection.”

“What were we doing with our

lives?” Finstad wrote before they

embarked. “Dragging your feet is

no way to climb a mountain; hold-

ing your breath is no way to dive.”

— Laura J. Nelson

Andrew Fritz,

Adrian Dahood-Fritz

Two weeks ago, Adrian Da-

hood-Fritz celebrated her 40th

birthday with a marine-themed

cake covered in white chocolate sea

stars. Her colleagues at the Califor-

nia Ocean Protection Council took

her out for shaved ice cream at a

place with “penguin” in its name,

the bird she was known to love after

years working in Antarctica.

Dahood-Fritz and her husband,

Andrew Fritz, a photographer, had

recently moved from Texas to Sac-

ramento so Dahood-Fritz could

join California’s efforts to manage

marine protected areas. She

quickly developed a reputation as

smart, unpretentious and passion-

ate, said Mark Gold, the organiza-

tion’s executive director.

Dahood-Fritz previously

worked for the National Science

Foundation and the National Oce-

anic and Atmospheric Adminis-

tration. In a statement, Gov. Gavin

Newsom said Dahood-Fritz “em-

bodied marine conservation” and

led the state’s efforts to manage

California’s network of marine pro-

tected areas.

Josh Baker, a longtime friend of

Fritz’s, said the couple had a “me-

teor” impact on Austin’s photogra-

phy community, a race car commu-

nity in Houston and an interna-

tional diving community. His two

young sons knew Fritz as “Uncle

Andrew,” he said.

“There was no escaping their

impact,” he said. “If they were in

your lives, they were in your lives.”

The two friends had started a

photography business together

four years ago. Fritz, 40, would

shoot portraits, weddings and na-

ture — his passion. He often put his

computer science degree to use,

managing their website, and once

built a photography time-lapse ap-

plication.

“He was a doer and a hands-on

constructor,” Baker said.

— Colleen Shalby

Dan Garcia,

Yulia Krashennaya

Apple engineer Dan Garcia was

on the Conception with his girl-

friend, Yulia Krashennaya, his

aunt said. She described him as “a

gifted engineer” who loved scuba

diving and was a loving partner,

son, brother and friend.

Garcia, 46, a Berkeley resident,

was “as passionate about his job at

Apple as he was about diving,” Ap-

ple’s O’Brien said.

— Laura J. Nelson

Allie Kurtz

Allie Kurtz was one of six crew

members on the Conception for

the Labor Day trip. The five other

employees survived by jumping off

the boat and paddling in a dinghy

to a nearby fishing boat. But Kurtz

was below deck when the fire broke

out.

“She had the biggest heart,” her

sister Olivia told reporters last

week as her family waited for news

on shore. “She was my role model,

my big sister. She was everything to

me.”

Kurtz, 26, graduated from a per-

forming arts high school in Cincin-

nati, district officials said. Before

pursuing her love of diving full

time, Kurtz worked at Paramount

Pictures in Los Angeles on the cre-

ative advertising team, working on

films including “Mission: Impos-

sible,” a company representative

said.

“Allie had a heart of gold, and

lived her life on her terms,” said her

father, Rob Kurtz, in an online

post. “The only sense of comfort

right now is knowing she passed

doing what she loved.”

He added in tribute to his

daughter: “I will always love you

and will miss you forever. You be-

came the pirate you wanted to be,

now sail away.”

— Laura J. Nelson

Charles McIlvain,

Marybeth Guiney

Santa Monica resident Charles

“Chuck” McIlvain was a visual ef-

fects designer who had worked at

Netflix, Walt Disney Co. and Sony

Pictures Imageworks. He was

known for his work on such movies

as “Watchmen,” “Spider-Man” and

“Green Lantern.”

He was a “radiant bright light in

many peoples’ lives,” said Culver

City Councilman Alex Fisch, who

had been his friend since they

shared the same dorm at UC

Berkeley. McIlvain, who recently

had celebrated turning 44, was

“someone who people cherished

every moment with,” he said.

Along with diving, McIlvain

loved mountain biking and snow-

boarding. To his friends, Fisch

said, he was the brightest light in

the room.

McIlvain had gone diving on

the Conception with Marybeth

Guiney, who lived in his condo

building in Santa Monica.

Guiney, 51, was a sales director

who was passionate about marine

life and ocean conservation. She

previously worked for the New

England Patriots, the organization

said in a statement.

Friend Jay Wilson, who had

gone diving with Guiney on the

Conception and other boats, said

in an interview with the Daily

A FIREaboard the Conception dive boat claimed the lives of 33 passengers and a crew member in the early morning on Labor Day off Santa Cruz Island.

‘Just living life to the very fullest’

[Victims,from B1]

[SeeVictims,B5]