Jerry Lowitz, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, musician, and friend to many, went home to the Lord on his 71st birthday, June 22, 2025.

A lifelong musician, Jerry’s passion for music was a defining part of his life. He was a beloved member of the Calvary Baptist Church worship team and played in multiple bands over the years, including a popular Humboldt County band, the Roadmasters. Jerry also had a career as a dedicated logger, working for PL.

Jerry had a special way with animals and found great joy in the outdoors, spending his time fishing and hunting. He truly loved his dog, Tank, who now lives with his wife, Kathy. Jerry will be deeply missed by his family and friends.

Jerry is survived by his beloved wife, Kathy Lowitz; daughter, Kimberly Lowitz; and stepchildren, Lynette Smith and Jeffrey Hernandez. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Britney, Colton, Ember-Lynn, Navaeh, Travis, and Waelyn, and also great-grandchildren.

A memorial service to celebrate Jerry’s life will be held on August 30th at 4:30 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church, located at 3400 F Street, Eureka. The family would be deeply touched if those who knew and cared for him would join them in remembering and celebrating his life.

A potluck and fellowship will follow the service. Please text the number of people attending the potluck to 707-499-3783.

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Joyce Novelo-Clark was born on July 5, 1957, in Eureka. She passed away peacefully in her home in Eureka on August 4, 2025, after a long battle with cancer. Despite treatments and overcoming cancer, it returned in different areas of her body.

Joyce graduated from Eureka High School in 1973. In 1987, she moved to Veracruz, Mexico, where she made many lifelong friends whom she called family. Around 2009, she returned to Eureka to be close to her family again. In 2011, she traveled to Tennessee for approximately two years, spending time with and getting to know more of her family, before returning to her hometown of Eureka to stay.

Joyce was always the person you could go to for advice on anything. She somehow always knew how to word things perfectly to guide you and help you look at situations from every angle, often adding her quick wit and humor. Joyce never judged and loved with all her heart. She always found the good in bad situations.

Joyce was preceded in death by her grandparents, Jim and Eva Markin; her mother, Barbara Clark; her father, Bill Clark; and her nephew, Steven.

She is survived by her two sons, Michael and Donald Pettitt; her brother, Willie Clark; her sisters, Debbie (Don) Smith and Terri (Orval) Crowl; nieces Deanna (Brian) Hopkins and Amber Dominguez; nephews John (Daphne) Taylor, Wayne Bukowski, David (Lorissa) Dias, Billy Clark, Christopher Clark, and Clayton Clark; along with many cousins and great-nieces and great-nephews.

A celebration of life will be held at Trinidad Town Hall on August 23, 2025, at 1 p.m.

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Patrick Martin O’Shea
October 22, 1944- June 25, 2025

Pat was born in Eureka to Bill and Helen O’Shea. He grew up in Eureka and attended local schools: Grant, Marshall, and Washington elementary schools, Eureka Junior High, and was a 1963 graduate of Eureka High School. In his early days, he spent a lot of time with his lifelong friend Joe Walund, playing in the woods and gulches, damming creeks, building tree forts and riding bikes. Pat was a true fun-loving character.

After graduation, Pat worked as a salesman for Glaser Bros., a wholesale distributing company. After leaving Eureka in 1970, he continued working in sales for other distributing companies, including Sysco. He spent many years living in Hollister before moving to Bakersfield in his retirement.

He and his wife Linda enjoyed many relaxing trips to Morro Bay and numerous fun trips to Reno. Pat was a long-time member of the Clampers, Elks, and Moose Lodge. He was the life of the party and always had an entertaining story to share. Pat recently moved back to Eureka.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Bill and Helen O’Shea, and his older brother, Mike. He is survived by his wife, Linda, as well as his longtime friends Joe Walund, Ralph Norling, and Bill Stringer.

An informal gathering in remembrance of Pat will be held in the back room of the Vista Del Mar on Saturday, August 23, from 2 to 4 p.m.

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A 70-year-old fishermen from the tiny fishing community of Quilcene, Wash., recently vanished without a trace while on a solo fishing trip.

The man, Joel William Kawahara, disappeared shortly after he embarked, a week ago Wednesday Friday. Maritime GPS tracked his unmanned vessel, the Karolee, as it continued slowly south — still rigged for fishing, its lights on, life raft secure in its cradle — until it was intercepted by the crew of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter on Wednesday morning and towed into Humboldt Bay.

After the boat was recovered, the Coast Guard suspended its search for Kawahara. 

On a memorial website, friends shared photos and stories, with one poster describing him as “a person of the highest order, with a rare mix of integrity, intelligence, optimism, passion, and humility, all in one so very likable human.” 

Here’s the press release from the U.S. Coast Guard:

The Coast Guard suspended its search for a missing fisherman off the coast of Oregon and Washington around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Missing is a 65-year-old man. [NOTE: Kawahara was 70, according to his memorial website.]

Coast Guard crews searched over 18 hours, scouring an area of 2,100 sq. miles, including over 430 miles of trackline.

The man departed alone on his fishing vessel, the Karolee, the week prior and was last heard from at 7:30 a.m., Friday, Aug. 8. The boat could be seen via its automatic identification system (AIS) and was traveling a constant southerly course at approximately four knots for several days.

Coast Guard watchstanders made numerous call outs to the Karolee and asked mariners in the area to do the same. No communication was ever received from the Karolee.

On Tuesday morning, a Coast Guard C-27 fixed-wing aircrew from Air Station Sacramento responded to the position of the vessel and attempted to make contact but nothing was heard. The aircrew visually noticed that the vessel was rigged for fishing, lights were energized, and a life raft was observed in its cradle.

The aircrew flew over the vessels’ previous course but did not find any signs of distress. The crew then flew back to Sacramento.

Around noon, watchstanders at the Coast Guard’s Northwest District command center dispatched an MH-60 helicopter from Air Station Astoria and Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Denman to assist in the search efforts. In addition, a boat crew from Coast Guard Station Neah Bay was launched and completed a shoreline search from Cape Flattery towards La Push, Wash.

The MH-60 searched for several hours in the waters west of Grays Harbor, Wash., and then returned to Astoria. The Douglas Denman arrived at the designated area by 8 p.m. and began searching. The Douglas Denman’s search lasted through the night.

The crew searched the trackline where the vessel traversed off the coast of Washington and Oregon to look for any signs of distress.

Watchstanders at the Coast Guard’s Southwest District command center diverted the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Lion to intercept the vessel and confirm if anyone was onboard.

The crew of the Sea Lion arrived on scene with the Karolee around 10 a.m., Wednesday, conducted a boarding, and confirmed no one was onboard. The Coast Guard crew also noted that all safety equipment was located onboard the vessel.

With no additional reports of distress or responses to callouts, the Coast Guard suspended the search. 

The crew of the Sea Lion took the Karolee in tow and brought it to Eureka, Calif., where it was transferred to a Station Humboldt Bay boat crew. The vessel is now moored in Eureka.

“Suspending a search for someone is the toughest decision we make in the Coast Guard” said Cmdr. Chelsey Stroud, search and rescue mission coordinator for the Coast Guard’s Northwest District. “Our crews diligently search hundreds of miles. We are grateful for the numerous Coast Guard crews along the West Coast who assisted in this search. We send our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of the missing man.”

You’ve probably seen the smudges and lines of what looks like light blue paint on the streets, always in front of garbage containers or where they have recently been. A closer look reveals that it is blue plastic rubbed off the bottom of recycling and garbage receptacles when they are dragged by service trucks. You might have also noticed curlicues of plastic being stripped from the bottoms and sides of the bins, either from abrasion on the streets or from the large metal forks that move the receptacles. Though nearly all the scuff marks are on street surfaces, the one in the picture represents a container being dragged along an elevated curb. I include it here because it’s the clearest example from several photos taken over a few years. The other picture shows curlicues and scraps I’ve collected on my neighborhood walks in McKinleyville.

The telltale blue streak on the curb. Click photo to enlarge.

It might be unrealistic to expect Recology — our laudable cleanup and recycling enterprise — or any other company on the planet that works on this large scale, to replace their containers, at least in the short term. However, I’ve written this piece in an attempt to get the ball rolling, hoping that others will join my voice for change. At this point in our collective ecological consciousness, it is glaringly known how toxic and pervasive plastic is. I don’t need to detail how its overuse, alongside other devastating practices such as blithely hopping on airplanes for vacations, is destroying species and habitats. (This world traveler hasn’t been on a plane since 2019 — but that’s another article.)

Four years ago I brought a small bag of the blue shavings to the Recology office, simply to share evidence that a company with such a name is actively creating plastic waste headed directly into the gutters and then the ocean. The employee I spoke with was just about polite, but I got the sense that she thought me a weirdo and I was pretty sure that little bag was headed straight for the trash and not to any future meeting regarding clean practices. From there I contacted a couple of people at the Northcoast Environmental Center, emailing images of smudges and streaks on the streets, as well an image of the shavings. Our communication went well enough in the moment but did not lead to any change.

Surprisingly, I have not found references to any cities having addressed plastic waste generated from recycling and trash bins. I have come across the suggestion to apply protective coatings (but of what?) to a bin’s underside or placing a buffer material between the bin and asphalt. Might the arms of the metal forks get a rubber wrap to avoid cutting into the plastic? Could Humboldt County set a precedent in trying to solve this? Arcata’s city council, after all, was the first in the nation to have a Green Party majority. My friends and I, naively, used to refer to Humboldt as Ecotopia — but the county still sets stellar examples of different environmental practices. Just think of the transformation that became the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary.

What to be done, then? Recology might respond if citizens visit their office with little bags of blue plastic shavings, followed up by letters, phone calls, and photos. We could make a sculpture of plastic bits and set it in the Arcata Plaza to replace President McKinley, akin to the Artula Institute’s Washed Ashore project: you may have seen the elaborate sculptures fashioned from ocean waste on display in Bandon, Oregon and elsewhere. Perhaps most effectively, Recology could put an employee to the task of sorting this out. In the meantime, I’ll keep picking up trash on my daily walks and talking to kids about good practices as I teach my poetry residencies. The steps to be taken range from small to global. For instance, it’s hard to imagine that any readers are still buying sponges made with petroleum-based plastic — which means choosing to put plastic directly into their drains — when alternatives are sitting right next to them on our store shelves. The kids know what’s happening and they wonder when the adults will stop sleepwalking.

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Dan Zev Levinson is a teacher and a poet. His website is zevlev.com.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• POLL! Which of These Should Be Humboldt’s Official ‘I VOTED’ Sticker in the Next Election?

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Press release from the Humboldt County Clerk/Recorder/Registrar of Voters:

The Humboldt County Office of Elections revealed the winning designs of Humboldt County’s “I Voted” Sticker Contest at the Humboldt County Fair on Saturday, Aug. 16.

Congrats, Adeline! Second place in LoCO Pollz.

Humboldt County’s “I Voted” Sticker Contest invited youth and adult artists to create sticker designs that celebrated voting and showcased the county’s unique natural environment.

Adeline Pierce, a student at Sunny Brae Middle School, was named the youth winner and recognized in for her winning design that featuring a banana slug. “I love the forest and banana slugs,” said Pierce of her winning design. “When I was little me and my family would go on long walks through the forest. I adored banana slugs and would name them and build them slug houses, so of course I decided to do a banana slug design.”

Congrats, Carly! First place in LoCO Pollz.

Carly Haynes, a local educator, was named the adult winner and said her design featuring an otter is meant to represent one of her favorite places in Humboldt County, the lagoons by Trinidad. “I also wanted to stay true to Humboldt’s weirdness which is why an alien spaceship is seen abducting an elk. I included ‘I Voted’ in Spanish, Hmong, Pashto and Vietnamese because these are some of the languages my students hear or speak at home. I wanted everyone in our community to feel included.”

The winning youth and adult designs will be featured in vote-by-mail ballots through 2027.

“Voting is both a right and a privilege, and this contest was a fun way to engage our community and encourage voting in Humboldt,” said Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes. “I’d like to thank everyone who shared their creativity, voted for their favorite designs and joined us at the Humboldt County Fair to celebrate the winners.”

For more information about the Humboldt County’s “I Voted” Sticker Contest, visit humboldtgov.org/elections, email humboldt_elections@co.humboldt.ca.us or call 707-445-7841.

About the Humboldt County Elections Office

The Humboldt County Office of Elections is committed to ensuring all eligible residents have an opportunity to exercise their right to vote, conducting elections in a fair, accurate and efficient manner, providing reliable information and the best possible service to voters, districts, candidates and other interested parties. For more information, please visit humboldtgov.org/elections.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On August 17, at about 3:21 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the area of Mal Coombs Park in Shelter Cove for the report of a small aircraft accident.

According to the reporting party, the aircraft crashed into the water approximately 100 yards offshore. Shelter Cove Fire, CAL FIRE, and the U.S. Coast Guard were also dispatched to the scene. Shelter Cove Fire personnel were the first to arrive and located two adult male occupants of the aircraft in the water. Both individuals were able to exit the plane prior to rescue.

Shelter Cove Fire personnel quickly deployed into the water, recovered the victims, and provided emergency medical care. One victim was stabilized at the scene and transported by air ambulance to an out-of-area hospital with major injuries. The second victim was pronounced deceased at the scene and was released to the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office. The identity of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

A preliminary investigation indicates the plane took off from the Shelter Cove Airport, turned west, and shortly after plunged into the ocean. Both occupants are believed to be out-of-county residents.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is working in partnership with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate this incident. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Shelter Cove Fire Department, CAL FIRE, the U.S. Coast Guard, the NTSB, and the FAA for their assistance and collaborative response.

Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251.