By Edd Merritt, Contributor

On Monday Marty Illick and her husband, Terry Dinnan, drowned while boating near their Lewis Creek home in East Charlotte, a neighborhood in which they had lived for over 40 years. Marty and Terry were well known in the community for their contributions to it.

Marty Illick

Terry Dinnan

Marty helped form the Lewis Creek Association in the 1990s and served as its executive director, a capacity through which she contributed numerous articles to The Charlotte News. She also served on the board of the Charlotte Land Trust (CLT) for over 20 years. She spearheaded the CLT work in conservation of the Burleigh Farm on Spear Street and was involved actively in maintaining a large section of its agricultural land that linked with surrounding forest. She also worked to conserve about a mile of riparian frontage of land along Lewis Creek. Currently she was serving as a member of the Charlotte Planning Commission.

Terry was a retired stone mason who, with his partner, owned a limestone quarry in Essex, New York, for over 25 years. After selling the quarry land several years ago, he donated his profit to help establish the Essex Quarry Nature Park there.

A third member of their boating trip was their three-year-old grandson who, wearing a life jacket, managed to make it to shore and was found safe inside their truck near their home.