While authorities have released the names of 22 victims of Monday’s fire and sinking of the dive boat Conception near Santa Cruz Island, portraits of most of the victims have emerged through online postings and news articles.
These accounts describe a varied group, ranging in age from teens to those in their 60s. Many were from the Bay Area.
In learning about them, it becomes clear that those on the Labor Day Weekend cruise aboard the Conception shared a love of diving and the ocean.
Below are brief descriptions of more than two dozen of the 34 victims, pieced together from accounts posted online on Facebook, GoFundMe and other sites, and from news stories.
Those with asterisks by their names have been positively identified by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Coroner’s Bureau as of Friday.
Patricia Beitzinger* & Neal Baltz*
Neal Baltz and Patricia Beitzinger were from the Phoenix, Arizona, area and reportedly loved taking adventure trips together.
Baltz was an engineer who was studying winemaking, according to People Magazine,
The longtime couple reportedly had traveled together to diving spots throughout the world.
Scott Chan* & Kendra Chan*
Scott Chan was a retired electrical engineer who took up a second career teaching, with his last assignment at a high school in Fremont, according to the Mercury News.
His daughter, Kendra Chan, was a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Ventura.
Father and daughter reportedly connected over their shared love of scuba diving.
“It was just a wonderful thing they did together to bond,” Scott’s wife, Vicki Moore, told the Mercury News.
Justin Carroll Dignam*
Justin Carroll Dignam of Anaheim was the founder and CEO of Big Fish Employer Services, a payroll management company, according to MyNewsLA.
The father of two was a veteran water polo player, and played at the University of Richmond, according to the Orange County Register.
He later coached in the sport and remained active with club teams.
In a message to employees, Big Fish Employer Services President Jeff Hill called Dignam a “fearless” CEO.
Lisa Fiedler
Lisa Fiedler, a hairdresser from Mill Valley, reportedly was an avid diver who traveled the world on dive trips, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
Her mother told ABC7 News that Fiedler loved to dive and even thought of herself as “part fish.”
“Everybody loved her. She was a kind, gentle person,” her mother, Nancy, told the Independent Journal.
Kristy Finstad
Kristy Finstand, who studied marine biology at UCSB, was a co-owner — with her husband, Dan Chua — of Worldwide Diving Adventures, the company the chartered the ill-fated trip aboard the Conception.
She began diving as a young child under the tutelage of her father, Bill Finstad, who founded Worldwide Diving Adventures, according to the company’s website.
She was leading the trip to the Channel Islands when the tragedy occurred.
“My mission is to inspire appreciation for our underwater world. I feel incredibly fortunate to be in the service of helping people invest in experiences of a lifetime,” Finstad said in a quote on the company’s website.
Andrew Fritz* & Adrian Dahood-Fritz
Andrew Fritz and Adrian Dahood-Fritz had moved recently from Texas to Sacramento.
Andrew Fritz was an avid outdoorsman, photographer, diver and chief technology officer for a company in Texas, according to KCRA3 News.
Dahood-Fritz was a senior environmental scientist for the Ocean Protection Council, and was known for her work as a marine biologist.
Daniel Garcia* & Yulia Krashennaya*
Daniel Garcia was a software development engineer who worked at Apple, company officials confirmed.
His partner, Yulia Krashennaya, was a product manager for Cisco Global Event Marketing, and worked in technology, data and analytics at SpiraLinks, according to her LinkedIn page.
The couple lived in Berkeley.
According to media reports, the company said Garcia was “as passionate about his job at Apple as he was about his love of diving.”
Marybeth Guiney*
Marybeth Guiney, of Santa Monica, formerly worked as a sales director for the New England Patriots, according to the Orange County Register.
Guiney was passionate about diving, and was affiliated with the Malibu Divers dive shop.
Many tributes to Guiney were posted on the Malibu Divers Facebook page.
Guiney was a neighbor of Charles McIlvain, another reported victim of the disaster.
Alexandra “Allie” Kurtz*
Allie Kurtz was a deckhand on the Conception, and is believed to have been sleeping on the lower deck with the passengers when the fire broke out.
She reportedly gave up a job in the movie industry to pursue her dream of working on the water, according to the Fairfield Citizen.
“She left this world doing something she absolutely loved,” her sister, Olivia Kurtz, told the Associated Press. “This was her dream, and she was finally able to fulfill this dream.”
Charles McIlvain*
Charles McIlvain of Santa Monica was a visual effects designer at Walt Disney Imagineering, according to his Facebook page.
McIlvain was neighbors with Marybeth Guiney, whom he and his wife often traveled with on dive trips.
He was described by friends as someone who was always happy.
He also was affiliated with the Malibu Divers dive shop.
Caroline McLaughlin*
Caroline “Carrie” McLaughlin of Oakland worked as a software engineer at Brilliant, a San Francisco-based company focused on STEM learning, offering courses in math, physics and computer sciences.
Also an artist, she graduated from UC San Diego.
She was on the trip with a colleague at Brilliant, Kristian Takvam.
Michael Quitasol*, Fernisa Sison & Evan, Nicole and Angela Quitasol*
Michael Quitasol reportedly was celebrating his birthday with the trip aboard the Conception with his wife, Fernisa Sison, and his daughters, Evan, Nicole and Angela Quitasol.
All were residents of the Central Valley except Nicole, who lived in Coronado, according to BuzzFeed News.
Sunil Singh Sandhu
Sunil Singh Sandhu reportedly was an electrical engineering researcher worked in Palo Alto, according to the Singapore-based NewPaper.
A native of Singapore, he had lived in the United State for more than two decades, and reportedly had taken up scuba diving only recently.
He received a master’s and PhD at Stanford University.
Steve Salika, Diana Adamic, Tia Salika* & Berenice Felipe
Steve Salika and Diana Adamic took their daughter, Tia, and her friend, Berenice Felipe, on the Labor Day Weekend excursion aboard the Conception.
The excursion was a celebration of Tia’s 17th birthday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Santa Cruz family were diving enthusiasts, and reportedly took trips to diving locales around world.
Steve Salika was a longtime employee of Apple, while Felipe was an active volunteer at the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter.
The two girls attended school together at Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz.
Dr. Ted Strom*
Dr. Ted Strom of Germantown, Tennessee, was a pathologist at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he had worked since 2009.
He obtained his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed residencies in Santa Clara and at UC Davis.
Kristian Takvam
Kristian Takvam was an executive at Brilliant, a San Francisco-based company focused on STEM learning, offering courses in math, physics and computer sciences.
He graduated from the University of Texas.
Wei Tan*
Wei Tan was a Singapore native who lived in Goleta.
She came from a family of divers, according to Channel News Asia, and began diving as a child.
Tan moved to the U.S. in 2012 and studied chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, then obtained a master’s degree from UC Berkeley.
She moved to the Santa Barbara area in June to begin work as a data scientist, according to Channel News Asia.
Vaidehi Campbell*
Vaidehi Campbell, also known as Vaidehi Williams, worked for the Soquel Creek Water District near Santa Cruz.
She was the district’s communications specialist, according to the district’s website.
Campbell, a mother and graduate of Scripps College, began working with the water district as a student intern in 1999 and 2000, and was hired permanently in 2001, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.