A tight-knit group of Oak Harbor High School alumni are reeling this week after learning one of their former classmates was killed in a car crash Thursday morning on State Highway 520 in Seattle.

Morgan Fick Williams, 58, was driving a Mazda Protege east near the Montlake Boulevard exit when a Ford Explorer being driven the wrong way on the highway collided with her. She was transported to Harborview Medical Center and Hospital in Seattle where she later died.

Williams was a 1973 graduate of Oak Harbor High School where she served as student body president.

She still kept up with a group of classmates long after she graduated from high school.

“Morgan always maintained her friendships in Oak Harbor. She never left the class,” said Mark Funk, who graduated with Williams.

He noted that Williams, who often rode the bus to work, drove from her Seattle home to her job at Eddie Bauer Thursday morning. She was planning to visit a former high school classmate who is in a hospice in Bellingham.

Pamela Marriott, who has known Williams since they were third-graders, was going to join her Thursday to visit their classmate. Plans changed once she, along with everyone else close to Williams, learned of the crash.

“It’s been horrible to say the least,” Marriott said Friday morning.

Marriott, Williams and others were planning the 40th reunion for the class of 1973.

Marriott was a classmate of Williams at the former Clover Valley Elementary School and attended Oak Harbor High School when is was located on State Highway 20.

They served on student council together. She noted Williams eventually married the man who served as vice president.

Williams and her husband had two children and remained close even after they divorced.

Williams graduated from the University of Washington with an accounting degree and spent more than 30 years working at Eddie Bauer. She was living in North Seattle at the time of the accident.

Marriott said Williams had a “world view” and had recently enjoyed trips to Morrocco and Turkey with a group of friends.

“She had a big soul,” Marriott said.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the car crash.

Trooper George Englebright said it’s not clear how the Ford Explorer, driven by 25-year-old Tacoma resident Michael Anthony Robertson, ended up driving the wrong way on Highway 520. He could have either entered from an exit ramp, but he may have made a U-turn on the busy highway.

Robertson was also transported to Harborview, where he was treated for a leg injury. He admitted to troopers that he had been drinking and, as of Friday morning, he is facing a charge of vehicular homicide, Englebright said.

Funeral arrangements for Williams weren’t available as of press time. Please check a future edition of the Whidbey News-Times.