William Chad Sawyer, 54, of Fillmore, Calif., died Sept. 29, 2002, following a long battle with cancer.

Chad went into the Navy in 1965 and spent three years aboard the USS Providence in the waters off Vietnam. Returning to Coupeville he then moved to the Fillmore area and was a long distance truck driver.

Chad and his wife Laura had just returned from a short trip to Coupeville where he had an opportunity to visit some of the favorite places where he grew up.

He took many pictures of where he learned to water ski, duck hunt at Casey, the Coupeville dock where he spent lots of time with Dick Hanson, the block house, and the gravesite of his great-great-great-great grandmother, Margaret Hastie, who died in 1864 and is buried in the Coupeville cemetery.

He leaves behind his wife Laura and children Valerie, Nathan, Jennifer, Alexi, and Tammy; his mother Lorraine Kossow, of Alpine, Calif.; his sisters Linda Munro, Mesquite, Nev., and Margen Fritts, Alpine, Calif. His father, Edward W. Sawyer, preceded him in death.

Services were held in Fillmore, Calif.