Some of the victims
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Marvin Renslow, pilot
Renslow, 47, lived in Lutz, Fla., and grew up in southwestern Iowa. He joined Colgan Air, the company operating the flight, in September 2005 and had flown 3,379 hours with the airline. Jeff Hiser, who went to school with Renslow in Shenandoah, Iowa, and is now the activities director at Shenandoah High School, said Renslow left Iowa to pursue his goal of becoming a pilot.
Alison Des Forges
Des Forges, of Buffalo, was senior adviser for Human Rights Watch's Africa division. Considered one of the world's leading specialists on genocide in Rwanda, Des Forges testified at 11 trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as an expert witness. She was named a MacArthur "genius grant" fellow in 1999. Des Forges was returning home to Buffalo after a trip to Europe, where she briefed diplomats on the situation in Rwanda and Africa's Great Lakes region, said Emma Daly, spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch.
Ellyce Kausner
Kausner was a second-year law student at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville. Her sister, Laura Kausner, said Ellyce was flying home to be her nephew's date at a kindergarten Valentine's Day party yesterday. Kausner was part of a group of about a half-dozen young women who had remained close friends since middle school, said one of the group, Candice Ciesla. "Ellie was a crazy, out-there kind of girl, totally full of life," said Ciesla.
Madeline Loftus
Loftus, 24, of Parsippany, N.J., was headed to Buffalo for a reunion of the Buffalo State women's ice hockey team, of which she was a member in 2002 and 2003, said Jeff Ventura, the school's sports information director. Loftus's brother, Frankie Loftus, 22, said his sister never worried about flying because their father was a pilot for
Coleman Mellett
and Gerry Niewood
An accomplished jazz guitarist, Mellett, 33, was a touring member of trumpeter Chuck Mangione's band for the last several years. The group was scheduled to perform last night at the Kleinhans Music Hall with the Buffalo Philharmonic. Niewood was a childhood friend of trumpeter Mangione.
Susan Wehle
Wehle, 55, had been cantor at Temple Beth Am in Williamsville, N.Y., since November 2002 and went well beyond her duties of singing religious songs there, said David Berghash, the temple's president. Before Temple Beth Am, Wehle was the cantorial soloist at Temple Sinai in nearby Amherst for 9 1/2 years.
