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

Although it would take many novels to describe his experiences and accomplishments, I think my brother would appreciate a shorter version. The second of three boys born to Liz and Archie Gollen at Bonner General Hospital on December 17, 1984, Glenn grew up and attended school in Sagle, Idaho. His early years roaming the family homestead and the Grouse and Gold Mountains fostered a love of wildlife and the outdoors that would captivate Glenn for the rest of his life.

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

Always looking for the next big adventure, my brother roamed the docks and ports to earn a living, before finally being hired on the Dive Master, a premier dive vessel that harvested sea cucumbers and geoducks at the bottom of the ocean. For eight years, Glenn manned the deck on this ship, maintained the rigging and, most importantly, monitored diver communications and oxygen levels underwater. To show what his loved ones thought of him, Glenn was offered a $60,000 license in 2018 by one of the divers he had kept safe all these years. The following season, with his license in hand and dive school completed, Glenn had achieved something he had worked for his entire life: he was a professional diver on one of the best boats, in one of the most fisheries. most lucrative in the world.

With his spearfishing season occurring primarily in the winter months, Glenn would return to Idaho in the summer and use his time to single-handedly build a beautiful custom home on the family property. All the while, I suppose, thinking about the next big adventure.

I can say with certainty that the happiest years of my brother’s life began four years ago when he met his wonderful future wife, Cin Bashaw. In 2024, they introduced their beautiful daughter, Hollis Willow, to the world, and later that summer, they got married. I watched Glenn transition easily and eagerly into fatherhood. He happily trades halibut races for diaper races and backcountry hunts for barbecues at Garfield Bay.

Across our table, Glenn’s adventure stories took us from mountaintops to the depths of the sea. A master hunter in the woods and professional fisherman at sea, Glenn’s most important trophy was always that that he put on the table. His catch fed my family more times than we can count and his warm smile always left everyone around him feeling loved. Family has always been Glenn’s most prized possession and the light in his eyes proved that a man’s greatest achievements are not measured by the mountains he climbs or the money he makes, but out of love for the family who loves him.

As the heart and humor of our family, you are the best man we have ever known. May our undying love shine for you in the stars and know that your stories and example will be passed down from generation to generation. 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 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., November 24, 2024, at the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, 1413 Upper Gold Creek Road.