UGP employees remember fallen ‘family’ members

Family. It can have a different meaning for everyone. For some, it’s the loved ones they come home to after a hard day’s work. For others, it could be a group of close-knit friends they’ve experienced trying times with.  

Common qualities that each example portrays are those of groups of people who care for one another. People who laugh, cry, get frustrated with, love and look after each other. For decades, family has always been a way to describe the working relationship among members of the Western Area Power Administration’s Upper Great Plains region. For years, many of UGP’s employees, headquartered in Billings, Montana, have come from local towns.  

In many of the small towns that dot the rolling landscape of eastern Montana, one can find generations of families intertwined with one another. Played basketball for Colstrip High? Someone’s cousin played against them in Miles City. Run into cattle ranchers from Glendive? Chances are they know your parents in Roundup. And so forth. This is what it means to live in this part of the West. 

But families aren’t immune from tragedy. That’s why it was especially difficult the evening of Friday, Dec. 18, 1992, when Dick Schirk, Dale Corey, Gary Miller, Bob Nordmeier, “Monday” Tafoya and Tracy Erger, members of that close UGP headquarters family, were tragically killed when their Department of Energy-operated Cessna 550 Citation II crashed on approach to Billings’ Logan International Airport.  

And thirty-two years later, while many who served with these former UGP members have retired or moved on from service with WAPA, a handful still remember. 

“You remember the people who always came around and they always said ‘hello’ to you and they always said good night and they were there,” recalled Linda Cady-Hoffman, a public utilities specialist supervisor based in Billings. “I mean, these people really cared about staff.” 

Cady-Hoffman, then a fresh-out-of-college contracts specialist in UGP’s Power Marketing office, remembered the “fourth floor” family vividly.  

“I look at my whole career and everything I know is all because of the guys I worked with and that I spent the majority of my workday with,” she said. “They cared about you, and I learned so much from all of them.” 

Similarly, Georganne Myers, who now has 35 years of WAPA service behind her, was UGP’s then-secretary for Schirk, who served as the region’s power marketing manager. Myers had been on the job for two years when the crash happened. 

“I think back to how it affected the office,” Myers recalled. “There were a lot of tears.” 

The flight to Watertown 

Schirk, together with senior members of his team, left earlier in the week to travel to UGP’s operations facility in Watertown, S.D., where they were due to attend customer meetings in nearby Rapid City and Madison. Operationally, UGP dispatchers in Watertown determine where to deliver power based on demand in a six-state area.  

Myers, who returned to WAPA part time after retiring in 2020, was also charged with putting together UGP senior leader travel arrangements in the early 90s, something she had performed numerous times. 

 “It was for customer meetings,” Myers said, “The reason Monday was on the return flight is she was in human resources and did a detail in Watertown. They stopped to pick her up to bring her back home so she wouldn’t have to fly commercial.” 

During their travels, Schirk and others also met with representatives from the U.S. Air Force. Cady-Hoffman recalled how those meetings were the culmination of a year-and-a-half’s work. 

“I remember knowing we did a whole bunch of transfers of allocations for the Air Force,” she said. “There were a bunch of Air Force bases, maybe three or four, and I had worked on all of those. We needed to get the power allocations moved around, and Dick had that package with him because they had to be signed by all of the member customers as well as the Air Force and WAPA.” 

With the meetings concluded, the UGP team boarded the aircraft bound for Billings, like they had done so many times before. 

Tragedy strikes 

The sun had already begun to set behind Montana’s Rocky Mountains as the Cessna lined up for approach. In front of it, a Boeing 757 cargo aircraft, prepared to land as well.  

According to the accident investigation overseen by the National Transportation Safety Board, WAPA’s twin-jet aircraft was a mile and a half out from final approach to the runway, and just minutes from landing. The board determined the aircraft had entered the larger 757’s vortex, an effect created by its powerful engines. This event caused the surrounding air to be thrusted upward past the Cessna’s wings, forcing it to dip side to side uncontrollably, ultimately causing a rapid roll from which the aircraft couldn’t recover. 

Myers, who had just left UGP’s headquarters for the day, witnessed the incident firsthand. 

“I had just left work. Connie Hilzendeger, the other secretary, and I were just leaving, and we always stood out by our cars and gabbed before we went home. That’s when I saw the plane. I said, ‘Oh, here comes the guys’ and all of a sudden the plane just kind of tilted back and forth and then just went completely down.” 

Miraculously, the aircraft avoided local homes, crashing into a Billings School District warehouse. Emergency responders were faced with challenging conditions while responding to the accident, as the aircraft punctured a gas line in the warehouse, causing a fire to burn for days after. The conditions outside also made the response just as challenging, with temperatures hovering at zero degrees Fahrenheit. Cady-Hoffman recalled how the streets surrounding the warehouse were frozen in ice for weeks after the crash. 

“I remember that Friday clearly,” Cady-Hoffman said. “My husband, Heath, and I were leaving to go to my mom and dad’s who lived in southeastern Montana. I can remember us driving through town and we heard on the radio, because at that time you listened to the radio, that there had been a plane crash in downtown Billings. And I looked at my husband and I went, ‘oh, my God, that’s our plane.’ On the news, they kept saying it was Montana Power’s aircraft because Montana Power had a Cessna as well, and they said they didn’t know if it was Montana Power’s or not. And I said, ‘Heath, I swear to God, that’s our plane. Dick and those guys were on that plane.’” 

Jim Davies, then regional manager, called everyone into the office the next day. 

“Jim Davies made the call,” Myers remembered. “He wanted everybody to come in and just discuss what happened, and we talked about what we could do for the families and what we needed to do. Things like their time sheets and all that kind of stuff so the families wouldn’t have to worry.” 

Like a strong family, the UGP team came together to support one another. With work the following week, Cady-Hoffman, still fresh out of college, remembered never experiencing anything like that in her life. 

“Everyone was really traumatized. Remember, I was young and hadn’t had anything like this happen before; it was a very somber experience coming into the office and all you wanted to know is what you could do.” 

Myers said the following week was filled with sadness. 

“There were always tears,” she said. “I remember Dick’s mom came in and set flowers in the middle of his desk. A bouquet of roses. So many people would come in to visit. We had the colonel from the [Army] Corps of Engineers come in just to visit and say they were sorry for our loss. There was a lot of outpouring from the community, too. Across the street was the Lincoln Center with a big auditorium. They had a big ceremony for all of them, which was really nice.” 

Myers also recalled how well respected the UGP team members were by WAPA’s customers throughout the region. 

“Many members of other government agencies and our WAPA customers came from different states to attend the ceremony and to stop in the office and give their personal condolences,” she said. “After the accident, the office grew closer together and we were more caring of each other’s feelings.  We realized how fast it can all change.” 

Remembering family 

Myers and Cady-Hoffman are among the few WAPA employees still serving in 2024 who remember UGP’s fallen family members. Both worked on the fourth floor of the regional headquarters building. UGP occupied three floors, while the Bureau of Reclamation claimed another. 

Both recounted to varying degrees the victims.

 

Richard ‘Dick’ Schirk, UGP’s Power Marketing Manager 

“Dick Schirk was always a very professional guy,” Cady-Hoffman remembered.  

Cady-Hoffman, who worked down the hall from Schirk, was introduced to WAPA through her sister, who told her to apply for an open student-hire position. She received a call from Bob Riehl, UGP’s public utilities specialist in Contracts, who interviewed her on behalf of another Billings mainstay, Robert Porter, the region’s contracts manager, and hired her on the spot. 

Recalling Schirk’s penchant for being well dressed, she remembered him as a “snappy dresser.” 

“His wife was the manager of Ralph Lauren in the mall here, so he was very sharply dressed. And he was an avid fly fisherman,” Cady-Hoffman said “But I remember him being very caring about his staff. I was young; you know, that was 1992. I just graduated from college in ‘91. At that time, our office was in kind of a shady part of town. We didn’t have a parking area. Dick Schirk would always make sure that somebody walked me to my car and he would say, ‘Linda, if it’s dark out, (it gets dark here at 4 o’clock), you come get me and I will make sure you get to your car.’ He was always like that.” 

Myers, who worked directly for Schirk, remembered him as stern, but a man with a good sense of humor. 

“I remember him sitting in the corner in his office with the sun coming in because his office had two windows at the corner, and he would sit between those two windows with the sunglasses on,” Myers recalled. “At that time, he used to talk into a tape recorder for letters and then he would hand me this this little tape that he dictated into. How many times I would hear myself on those recordings say, ‘don’t be too windy in there.’ There were a couple times when I was secretary that I did put in for a couple other jobs and I remember Dick telling me I couldn’t go because I had a future there, and he was right. I did have a future there, so I appreciate him for that.” 

Dick is survived by his wife, Lorie, and daughter, Pam. 

 

Gary Miller, UGP Deputy Area Manager 

“Gary Miller was very much full of life as well,” Cady-Hoffman remembered. “He hadn’t been in the office that much as he was the assistant regional manager. That was kind of the structure back then. He was an avid family man; I want to say he had six kids? I’ll never forget he drove a little black (Pontiac) Fiero. He was a big guy and, somehow, he fit into that car.” 

Myers agreed, saying Gary “had a presence about him.” 

“I sat right next to his office door and, when he came out of his office, he would stand there and pull up his pants and kind of grin and say, ‘Think I’ll go check how things are going.’ And he would,” she laughed. “People were just so intimidated by him. We would just sit there and kind of giggle to ourselves because we knew what he was doing, and he was doing it on purpose. He’d walk up and look over the cubicles and see what was going on.” 

A former Marine enlisted man and officer who served in Vietnam, Miller graduated from the University of North Dakota with a law degree in 1979. For a short time, he worked for the Montana-Dakota Utilities Company before moving to Denver to work as an attorney for WAPA in 1981. Less than six months prior to the crash, Miller was promoted to be UGP’s deputy area manager. 

Miller is survived by his wife and six children. 

 

Dale Corey, UGP Rates Manager 

Dale Corey served as UGP’s rates manager, which Cady-Hoffman said gives her pause to this day as she also serves as the region’s rates manager.  

“Dale was just a humorous guy,” she remembered. “We used to say the ‘big joke’ was he did one number a year [on annual rates negotiation], and he would always walk around with a coffee cup when he came around. These are the things that you remember about these people.” 

Corey is known as a “Western Original,” a title bestowed on those who were on WAPA’s payroll as its first employees on Sept. 30, 1978, when the organization branched off from the Bureau of Reclamation. Prior to working for WAPA, Corey was also employed with the Bureau. When he first came on board with WAPA, Corey served as the load studies and system repair head in Billings. 

Corey is survived by his wife, Sandy; his son, Heath; and daughter Staci. 

 

Robert “Bob” Nordmeier, UGP IT Technician 

Myers recalled how Bob was just simply a pleasant guy and how much she got along with him. 

“He liked to joke around,” she remembered. “He was in a wheelchair, but sometimes you just kind of forget there was anything different. He asked me once for something on a clipboard and I said, ‘they’re up there on top the cabinet’ and I kept on working. He would pause, then slyly ask, ‘Well, would you get it for me?’”

Bob, who made use of a wheelchair due to an accident that paralyzed his legs, was an avid horse rider. In the summer of 1991, he earned a gold medal during the state’s annual Big Sky State Games in its Adaptive Equestrian Event category, according to his obituary. He was also an avid adaptive skier and swimmer. 

At the time of the crash, Bob was single and survived by his mother, father, sister and brother. 

 

Maria Magdalena “Monday” Tafoya, UGP Human Resources Specialist 

Monday, as she was affectionately known, was one of several human resources specialists assigned to the UGP region. She was also charged with coordinating Freedom of Information Act, or “FOIA,” requests. 

Monday started with WAPA in 1986 after working for the Social Security Administration, according to her obituary.  

In the times they interacted, Myers remembered Monday as being a very nice person. 

“We would visit within the halls and things like that,” she said. “They were on the third floor and we were on the fourth so I really never had that much interaction with her.”  

Writing in the Jan. 15, 1993, edition of WAPA’s then-Closed Circuit magazine, former UGP public utilities technician Kimary Murphy, based in Watertown, wrote “Monday was my close friend. Monday’s family and many friends will mourn her passing not only as a deep and personal tragedy, but to those who knew her well, her passing (also represents) an unfulfilled destiny.” 

Monday is survived by her husband, Nick, and three children.  

 

Tracy Jo Erger, Contractor, Source One Management 

Erger, a records management contractor, was also on board the aircraft when it went down. Her experience as a contractor also included a stint working with the Internal Revenue Service. 

Reflecting in the Jan. 15, 1993, edition of the then-Closed Circuit magazine, WAPA employees commented on what they believed would be her message to the world, stating: “Her home life was her strength. She was very proud of her family, her kids and her husband. Her strong base also included a positive perspective on life; she preferred to look past anything negative.”  

She is survived by her husband, daughter, son and step-daughter.