Pioneering, can-do legacy lives on

It’s never the same day twice in the news business. Wednesday seemed quiet enough until a few minutes after 9 a.m., when an announcement arrived by email that would leave our community shaken and in mourning.

That’s when we received word that for the second time in company history, a plane piloted by the head of Matanuska Electrical Association had fatally crashed.

Longtime pilot and MEA Chief Executive Officer Joe Griffith, who is licensed to fly privately and commercially, was at the controls of the Cessna 206 Tuesday night when the floatplane landed on Beluga Lake near Homer, and then sank.

On board were former state legislator Cheryll Heinze, MEA’s director of Human Resources and Public Affairs; Tony Zellers, director of the Eklutna generation station; Tony Izzo, manager of fuel supply and contracts for the Eklutna project and a past president of Enstar; and Eddie Taunton, MEA’s safety manager.

Heinze was trapped inside the plane when it sank. Efforts to revive her once freed from the plane failed and she died. The others onboard had only minor injuries.

Three MEA employees also were killed in a similar crash 44 years ago when then MEA head Mason LaZelle was piloting a Cessna 185 that crashed en route from the Palmer airfield to Nulato and Unalakleet.

Killed Feb. 27, 1968, were LaZelle, operations superintendent Phil McRae and electrician Alex Fuller. It took nearly five months to find the wreckage, 128 miles from Palmer, south of the Cathedral Mountains.

While we mourn the loss of Heinze and those lost in that earlier Cessna crash, we know their legacy continues in our community.

Alaska and the Mat-Su Valley were not carved from the wilderness by the timid. Across the millennium, the souls who pioneered this land — first Alaska Native people and later trappers, miners and soldiers — were cast from mettle not found elsewhere.

Pioneers among us brought to life the electrical cooperative that powered early progress and continues to fuel plans for bright, well-lit tomorrows.

In these modern days, “pioneers” still walk among us; people who lead with new ideas and new energy. Heinze was one such pioneer.

That MEA’s Operation RoundUp exists is due in no small part to her energy, vision and can-do spirit. Already the program has given thousands of dollars in community grants in our name, the member-owners of MEA.

As MEA members, we have donated thousands in small change to aid local nonprofits such as the Children’s Lunch Box, Outdoor Heritage, Mat-Su Youth Court, Alaska Live Steamers, Community Arts Council, Radio Free Palmer and Trapper Creek Community Food Bank.

Operation RoundUp is only one such lasting legacy that lives in our community because of Heinze’s pioneering, can-do spirit.

As we struggle to process our collective loss, our thoughts and prayers are especially with our neighbors who work at MEA, Heinze’s surviving mate Harold Heinze, and CEO Griffith, who was piloting the plane.