With all the sadness a family can face, 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 commercially fishing in the waters off the coast of 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 children born to Liz and Archie Gollen at Bonner General Hospital on December 17, 1984, Glenn grew up and attended school in Sagle, Idaho. The early years of wandering the family property 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 after-school grouse hunter, Glenn was above average in everything he did. While in high school and attending college, Glenn apprenticed in carpentry and home construction with Don Goffinet, a Bottle Bay builder and Ketchikan native. By the time Glenn completed his bachelor’s degree in project management from Eastern Washington University, he had already spent several summers working with Don on construction projects and getting to know the fishing industry in Ketchikan, Alaska. Shortly after 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 deck handling on purse seiners, gill nets and dive boats became his way of life. He had bright eyes and firm handshakes for everyone he met, and opportunity was at every turn for a guy like Glenn.

Always striving for the next big adventure, my brother worked his way through docks and ports to make a living, until he was eventually hired on The Dive Master, a leading diving boat that harvested sea cucumbers and geoducks from the bottom. of the ocean. For eight years, Glenn was a deckhand on this ship, maintaining the rigging and, most importantly, monitoring the diver’s communications and oxygen levels while underwater. To show how those closest to him felt about him, in 2018 one of the divers he had kept safe all those years gave Glenn a $60,000 permit. The following season, permit in hand and dive school completed, Glenn had achieved something he had worked for all his life: to be a professional diver on one of the best boats, in one of the most lucrative fisheries in the world.

Since his spearfishing season was primarily in the winter months, Glenn returned to Idaho in the summers and used his time to single-handedly build a beautiful custom home on the family property. All the time, I guess, 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 that same summer they got married. I watched Glenn transition easily and eagerly into fatherhood. We happily traded halibut races for diaper races and backcountry hunts for barbecues in Garfield Bay.

Across our table, Glenn’s adventure stories took us from the tops of the mountains to the bottom of the sea. Master hunter in the woods and 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 made everyone around him feel loved. Family was always Glenn’s most prized possession and the light in his eyes showed that a man’s greatest achievements are not measured by the mountains he climbs or the money he earns, 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 for you in the stars and know that your stories and example will be passed down from generation to generation. We love them 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 to 6 pm on November 24, 2024 at Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, 1413 Upper Gold Creek Road.