Welcoming hosts, avid travelers and full of life — that’s how friends and family remember a couple who died in a plane crash on Molokai on Sunday.
Molokai residents Bill and Lynn Vogt were flying from Honolulu to Molokai on Sunday morning when their Cessna 206 lost contact with the Molokai Airport tower. Their plane was later found in a remote location about 4 miles west of the airport.
Bill Vogt, a retired dentist, and Lynn Vogt, a former Kamehameha Schools Kapalama teacher, had been living on Molokai for many years and were known for their generosity and willingness to open their home to strangers.
“To be in their presence — and everybody speaks to this — they truly embodied grace and aloha,” said Teri Waros, a longtime friend of the Vogts and owner of Kalele Bookstore in Kaunakakai. “That love between two people, it’s like they were soul mates. That’s why it’s not surprising that they went together.”
Police had not released the names of the crash victims as of Monday evening, but family and friends confirmed that the Vogts had been in the crash Sunday. A tail number obtained from Federal Aviation Administration officials showed the fixed wing single-engine Cessna was registered to William F. Vogt of Maunaloa, Molokai.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said Monday that the plane took off from Honolulu en route to Molokai. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
Elijah Osborne, a grandson of the Vogts, said in an email that his grandparents “lived long and happy lives” and were just coming back from a trip to Antarctica.
The couple loved to travel. They toured the Mainland in a camper and took trips all around the world, Waros said. They built a home on the west end off the grid, and Bill Vogt commuted by plane to his dentist practice in Kahala, Oahu, before he retired.
Lynn Vogt taught English at the Kamehameha Schools Kapalama campus from 1975 to 2002, according to the school. She served as a substitute teacher from 2002 to 2010.
“Lynn Vogt was a beloved member of the Kamehameha Schools ‘ohana for more than three decades,” Taran Chun, head of school of Kamehameha Schools Kapalama, said in a statement Monday. “Her deep commitment to our haumana was evident in all she did. Our hearts, prayers and aloha go out to Lynn’s family and friends.”
Osborne said that his grandmother survived three bouts of cancer and “maintained her resilience throughout.”
Waros moved in next door to the Vogts 14 years ago. The first night she went out to watch the sunset, Bill Vogt walked over and introduced himself. It turned out Waros had known Bill Vogt since she was 4 years old — her childhood dentist had shared an office with him.
The Vogts had family on Oahu, and Waros remembered often seeing their Molokai home bustling with kids and grandchildren.
“I can’t think of finer people,” Waros said. “Lynn is probably one of my favorite people. So genuine and authentic. They were kind and both very generous.”
Molokai resident Noelani Yamashita met the Vogts on May 14, 2012. It was her birthday, and that morning she’d written in her journal that she wanted to play tennis. On her way to the beach, Yamashita heard the familiar sound of racket on tennis ball and found Bill Vogt hitting on the couple’s tennis court.
Yamashita asked if she could join, and Bill Vogt was more than happy to oblige. He let her pick from a wide selection of shoes that made Yamashita think he often opened his court to strangers.
“They were so beautiful and welcoming,” Yamashita said. “They didn’t think it was strange that I randomly dropped by.”
Over the years, the Vogts would become close friends with Yamashita, who runs the nonprofit Ka Honua Momona. Lynn Vogt volunteered to watch Yamashita’s young sons while she played tennis with Bill Vogt, who “always outlasted me on the courts,” even in his 80s, Yamashita said.
Yamashita and the Vogts shared many long conversations and plenty of veggie sandwiches made with sprouts grown around the couple’s home.
“I think their relationship, besides my parents, is one that I look to as a role model of how couples should be together,” Yamashita said. “You could see they deeply admired each other and were best friends.”
The Vogts also enjoyed lending a hand in the community. They volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and got involved in the island’s Hawaiian monk seal count, where Emillia Noordhoek met Lynn Vogt in 2009. Noordhoek was a development director with Habitat for Humanity at the time and remembered the Vogts’ generosity. Once the couple welcomed in a group of 15 international Habitat volunteers, hosting them for dinner and a campfire on the beach near their home. They also flew Noordhoek on their plane to Oahu once for a Habitat conference.
“They were so vibrant, and so full of life, and so adventurous,” said Noordhoek, executive director of the nonprofit Sust’ainable Molokai. “They loved each other, they loved their kids, they loved traveling and they really loved experiences and meeting new people.”
Both Yamashita and Noordhoek said the one thing that brought them comfort was that the Vogts were doing what they loved.
“They were on an adventure together,” Yamashita said. “That’s the only thing I can think of that makes me feel any kind of peace about losing a beautiful couple like that.”
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.
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