WASILLA — His friends remember Eric Deeter as a tireless volunteer.

Deeter, 50, who died Thursday in a three-car pileup in Anchorage, was a painter and carpenter. He was also active with a number of local non-profits.

“He would do whatever he could do and he got tapped a lot, and he never turned anybody down,” said Teresa Roy, who shared art studio space with Deeter for years.

Courtesy photo Valley artist and community advocate Eric Deeter, center, died Thursday in an Anchorage automobile accident.

Mike Chmielewski served with Deeter on the board of directors of Radio Free Palmer.

“We would be hanging some speakers for Radio Free Palmer in November in the cold on the side of a building. And I said, ‘What the hell are we doing?’” Chmielewski said. “Through that all, when you were doing any of those things, it was always fun to work with him.”

Howard Bess sits on the board of directors for the Palmer Arts Council, a group that, along with Valley Performing Arts, benefited greatly from Deeter’s work painting backdrops for stage productions.

“When I heard of the accident late (Friday) morning I’ve just been sick at heart. The community at this point doesn’t realize just what a loss his death is,” Bess said.

Anchorage police say Deeter was driving north on Minnesota Drive, waiting at a red light on Tudor Road in his Toyota Corolla shortly after 5 p.m. They say Deeter, for unknown reasons, suddenly ran the light, turning in front of a southbound Dodge Ram pickup driven by George Frenzel, 67, of Anchorage.

The pickup went airborne, police report, landing atop the Corolla. A third vehicle was then hit. Deeter was the only fatality. Frenzel was unhurt. The third driver had minor injuries.

Deeter’s wife, Gretchen Diemer, said she met her husband in Tennessee.

“Eric had moved there with his parents. He lived there because his parents had moved there in high school,” Diemer said. “I was just there floating around in my old hippie days, I guess.”

She said she liked Deeter from the moment they met.

“When I met him it was like I knew him and I saw him and recognized him from some other plane.”

They were married 10 months after their first date, she said. Their 25th wedding anniversary is coming up next week.

She convinced him to come to Alaska and they arrived in 1994. She said a lot of times when she meets people — especially men — they’re surprised when she tells them it was her idea, not Deeter’s, to come north.

“You were the one that had to convince your husband? It took me forever to convince my wife,” is a common reaction, she said.

But Deeter really liked the idea of moving to the Bush with his wife — not least because spouses of teachers flown in to work in those communities are often encouraged not to work, especially when the couple has children.

That, Diemer said, gave him more time to do his painting. But it also gave him more time to focus on their son, Jeff.

Diemer said Deeter was an intensely devoted father, almost since before Jeff was even born. He was elated when they found out they’d be having a baby.

“He was just walking the streets looking at the stars, he was so happy,” she said.

Jeff grew up to run the Iditarod at 19 and is currently preparing for another run in this year’s race. Diemer said everyone in their family had obsessions. Hers is writing poetry. Deeter’s was painting. And Jeff’s is mushing.

But the mushing took on another dimension. Deeter was very supportive of his son’s dreams. He helped him on races – spending nights sleeping in a pickup at 50-below or handling dogs at checkpoints.

And the mushing, in some ways, became something of a family pursuit and all three of them jumped into the mushing world.

“Jeff brought his dad and I and a whole circle of friends that we probably never would have met if it hadn’t been for him,” Diemer said.

Roy said Jeff’s dreams, and his dad’s work to further them, has inspired folks who knew them to set up an account at Mat-Valley Federal Credit Union in Deeter’s name. She said the money will go to helping Jeff make his second Iditarod run.

Chmielewski said Deeter set an example of quiet confidence. Deeter did some tile work on interior window ledges on Chmielewski’s home. He said he saw the way Deeter worked and found it inspiring.

“I’ve caught myself doing things more carefully in part because I’ve seen some of his work and he did good work but it wasn’t obsessive. There was kind of a relaxed competence.”

Bess said he saw in Deeter a true artist.

“He was a very bright guy and he understood art as not just something that is pretty or mechanically well done but he understood art as truly a language.”

Bess spoke about a series of large paintings Deeter was planning inspired by the myth of Prometheus. Deeter was hoping to find funding for the work and the Palmer Arts Council was helping him with that.

“What I’m saying is that he, he just wasn’t an accomplished person with paint brushes. He was a real thinker,” Bess said.

Roy said what she’ll miss most about Deeter is his sense of humor.

“No matter what life was throwing at him. He’d get discouraged or he’d get upset about something or a person, it didn’t take him long to put it in perspective.”

Diemer said she wasn’t fully onboard when Jeff decided to take this year off from school to run the Iditarod again. But Deeter brought her around.

“He said, ‘I have complete faith that our boy is going to be fine,’” she said. “I’m glad he felt that way because he doesn’t have his dad to help him out anymore.”