PORT TOWNSEND — Kelly VanderVen packed a lot into his 20 years, facing responsibilities head-on that many put off until later in life.

The father of a 20-month-old girl and a hard-working technician for his own father’s liquid waste disposal business, VanderVen was heading toward a bright future.

That future came to a halt just hours after a two-car collision Thursday night on U.S. Highway 101 near Sequim.

VanderVen died early Friday morning at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

For Neil VanderVen, Kelly’s father, the reality is still sinking in.

“He’s pretty exceptional,” Neil said Friday, speaking in the present tense to keep close to his son’s memory.

“He sort of leaped into life pretty fast.”

That meant assuming the responsibility — and joy — of helping to support and raise his daughter, Makayla, born 12 days before his 2002 graduation from Port Townsend High School.

Determined to provide for his child, Kelly put everything he had into his job at Good Man Inc., the Cape George company his father co-owns.

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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.