Dr. Tony Oertling, a veteran boater, died last Friday on North Idaho's Marble Creek
By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
A kayaking accident on North Idaho's Marble Creek last Friday has claimed the life of an Eastern Washington University professor.
Dr. Tony Oertling, 54, of Spokane, and chair of EWU's Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, was paddling the creek, a tributary of the St. Joe River, and became momentarily separated from the rest of his group. When Oertling did not catch up to the rest of his group they went looking for him and found his body upstream.
“We will likely never know what went wrong,” fellow paddler and Eastern recreational studies professor, Matt Chase, said. “He had done the run before. His skill level and anything to do with judgment wasn't an issue.”
The group of five boaters included three kayakers, plus two pontoon boats known as catarafts. They had set out earlier in the day to run a 14-mile section of the historical waterway that in the early 1900s was once used to float logs down to the St. Joe and eventually to mills in St. Maries.
They all had successfully negotiated the most serious section of Class IV water – known to some as the 3-Mile rapids – when the incident occurred. The drop is approximately three miles from Marble Creek's confluence with the St. Joe and contains a nearly non-stop section of whitewater that only those with the best skills tackle.
An obviously emotional Chase, a top-notch kayaker himself, spoke of his long-standing friendship with Oertling. “We've been boating together for about 20 years,” Chase said. “He was a very special friend of mine.”
Chase and Oertling paddled regularly after work during the week on nearby stretches of the Spokane River and would sometimes take their kayaks to surf and play out in the ocean.
“He was a southern boy, kind of laid back,” Chase said of Oertling who came to Eastern in 1992 after serving in a post-doctorate position at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Oertling earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1987.
“He was always quick to laugh,” Chase said. No one ever had a bad thing to say about the guy, according to Chase. “He was a friend to a lot of people.”
“Tony will be greatly missed by his students, as he was a fine teacher,” EWU President, Dr. Rodolfo Arévalo said in a prepared statement. “He will also be missed by all of us at Eastern who knew and liked him for his thoughtfulness and bright spirit.”
According to Chase, Oertling is survived by his wife of nine years, Mary. Chase said a formal memorial service will be held at Heritage Funeral Home at 508 N. Government Way in Spokane at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]
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