Remembering Marty & Terry

The Lewis Creek Association Board has been devastated by the loss of Marty Illick and her husband Terry Dinnan in a tragic accident on the creek she so loved. She was a founding board member of the LCA over 30 years ago, and a relentless advocate for conservation and water quality through her many years as Executive Director. Her enthusiasm and curiosity inspired board members and anyone she met, citizens and professionals alike, to work towards our common goals and respect differences. She was expert at finding ways to involve board members, volunteers, and students that matched individual interests, skills or passion with a project that furthered our collective understanding and appreciation for our natural and social communities. She seldom sat idly by as she knew there were good projects to pursue for the betterment of the environment, and many ways to engage others in that work.

She encouraged robust discussions around any subject matter in order to arrive at a more complete understanding of an issue, often informed by several perspectives that combined to yield a more thoughtful analysis. Her ability to absorb and synthesize information and then share with her fellow board members inspired us to push ourselves to be more critical and engaged thinkers. Her dedication to researching an issue and ability to synthesize often complex information and distill it down to the essence guided LCA’s ability to work effectively with a broad range of public and private organizations and collectively take actions and get things done. Her beliefs and determined approach occasionally ruffled a few feathers along the way, but “nevertheless, she persisted”. Her knowledge of the governmental landscape and personnel was unmatched. Occasionally at board meetings, her deep knowledge of state and federal water quality programs, projects and acronyms would leave her fellow board members in the dust. “Hold on a sec Marty, what does that one stand for?” A couple of years ago, several of us stragglers prevailed on Marty and Kate Kelly, our Program Manager, to append a glossary to each agenda to help us keep up. Through all of the work we did together, Marty was always about the learning, trying to hone her understanding of the dreaded P, Phosphorus, along with many other aspects of stream conservation. She brought a beginner’s mind and a willingness to laugh to the task at hand. Her enthusiasm for the work and warm encouragement of her fellow board members was an infectious combination.

None of us will soon forget the warmth and welcome we found at Marty and Terry’s lovely home for the many meetings we have had there over the years. Their kitchen was always brimming with wonderful and delicious concoctions, harvested out back and generously shared. Along with being an artist and craftsman with stone, and providing a steady and unflappable ballast to Marty’s bounding energy, Terry made fabulous cheeses from milk produced in the neighborhood and was also an accomplished photographer whose artful shots we have shared as our postcard these last 8 years or so. He was a gifted maker of things with a wry smile often on his face. Together, they shared a profound commitment to doing right by this earth that provides us with such beauty and bounty, and their home truly showed this.

Though their loss is a terrible blow to all of us who had the good fortune to know them, and certainly to their family, we take some measure of comfort by furthering the good work we have shared over the years with wonder and humor.