Glenn Malachi Gollen, 39

It is with all the sadness a family can face, that we announce the passing of our beloved brother, husband, father, and son, Glenn Malachi Gollen. On Oct. 2, 2024, Glenn lost his life in a diving accident while commercially fishing in the waters off the coast of Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska.

Though it would take many novels to describe his experiences and accomplishments, I believe my brother would appreciate a shorter version. The second of three boys born to Liz and Archie Gollen at Bonner General Hospital on Dec. 17, 1984, Glenn grew up and attended school in Sagle, Idaho. Early years roaming the family property and Grouse and Gold mountains fostered a love for the wildlife and the outdoor world that would captivate Glenn for the rest of his life.

A Sandpoint High School graduate, Bulldog football player, and after-school dirt-road grouse hunter, Glenn was above average in everything he did. While in high school and while attending college, Glenn apprenticed carpentry and home-building under Don Goffinet, a Bottle Bay builder and Ketchikan native. By the time Glenn had completed his bachelor’s degree in project management from Eastern Washington University, he had already spent several summers working with Don doing building projects and meeting the fishing industry of Ketchikan, Alaska. Soon after and for the next 15 years, he would be a resident. While building came naturally to Glenn, the bays and islands and fiords of SE Alaska called louder and deck-handing on the seiners, gill-netters and dive-boats became his way of life. He was bright eyes and firm handshakes to everyone he met, and opportunity was down every dock to a guy like Glenn.

Always striving toward the next great adventure, my brother worked his way through the docks and harbors to earn his keep, to finally being hired on The Dive Master, a leading dive-specific vessel that harvested sea cucumbers and geoducks from the ocean floor. For eight years, Glenn deck-handed this ship, maintained the rigging and, most importantly, monitored the diver’s communications and oxygen levels while underwater. To show how those closest to him felt about him, in 2018 Glenn was gifted a $60,000 permit by one of the divers whom he had kept safe all those years. The next season, with permit in hand and dive school completed, Glenn had achieved something he had worked his entire life for: He was a professional diver on one of the best boats, in one of the most lucrative fisheries, in the world.

With his under-water fishing season being mostly in the winter months Glenn returned to Idaho in the summers and used his time to single-handedly construct a beautiful custom home on the family property. All the while, I assume, thinking ahead to the next great adventure.

I can say with certainty, the happiest years of my brother’s life began four years ago when he met his wonderful wife-to-be, Cin Bashaw. In 2024, they introduced the world to their beautiful daughter, Hollis Willow, and later that summer they were married. I watched Glenn transition easily and eagerly into fatherhood. Happily trading halibut runs for diaper runs and back-country hunts for barbecues at Garfield Bay.

Across our table, Glenn’s stories of adventure took us from the top of mountains to the bottom of the sea. A master hunter in the woods and a professional fisherman in the ocean, Glenn’s most important trophy was always the one he put on the table. His catch fed my family more times than can be counted and his warm smile always left everyone around him feeling loved. Family was always Glenn’s most cherished possession and the light in his eyes proved true that a man’s greatest accomplishments are not measured by the mountains he climbs or the money he makes, but by the love for the family that loves him.

As the heart and humor of our family, you are the best man we have ever known. May our eternal love shine to you in the stars and know that your stories and example will be passed down for generations. We love you as brothers Cole and Dylan and parents Liz and Archie, wife Cin and daughter Hollis, sister-in-law Joanna and niece Maeve and as relatives and friends everywhere.

A celebration of Glenn's life will be held 4-6 p.m. Nov. 24, 2024, at the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, 1413 Upper Gold Creek Road.