TILLAMOOK, Ore. (KOIN) — When Angie Chase got the phone call that a fishing boat had flipped near the Tillamook coast, she “just knew.”
Todd Chase, 51, was on the fishing boat that capsized near the mouth of Tillamook Bay on Saturday. He was one of the two fishermen who died. Two others remain in the hospital.
Although he made his living running a construction company with his sons, he was also an experienced fisherman — at sea since he was 14, his wife said.
So when a friend needed an extra crewman, Chase agreed to join.
“He took that job to help that guy out,” Angie said.
Angie married her husband when she was just 19 years old. This August would have marked their 30th wedding anniversary.
“We didn’t quite make it there,” she said.
They raised their four boys — Zach, Cord, Bowen and Brayden — in Tillamook and Astoria. Cord looks most like his father, but as his brother Brayden explains, each brother takes after their father in one way or another.
“I see all the qualities of my brother’s,” Brayden said. “The first one, Zach is a gabber … Cord, he’s stubborn and Bowen, he’s a hard worker and I know for myself, my dad, he’s sill and I got his goofy personality.”
Today, these young men surround their mother as they grieve their father.
“We have the waves of lots of tears, and we have moments of laughter, and moments of reflection,” Angie said.
The family said people that knew Todd know he had a big heart and would help anyone who needed it.
“He was the life of the party and was able to bring everybody laughter,” Angie said.
His sons said they are determined to carry on his legacy of hard work, strength and love.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Chase’s wife and children. Angie is asking anyone who knew Chase who might have pictures of him to email them to her at angelinechase@yahoo.com.