DIANE SCHOSTAK, a longtime Forks resident, member of a legendary West End pioneer family, former director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce and retired executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, is dead at 59.
Mrs. Schostak, who was being treated for stage 4 breast cancer, died in California, where she had been visiting relatives in Bakersfield.
Her husband, Ken, posted the following Facebook message this morning:
My love of my life, Diane Schostak passed away last night. There is not enough words to say about her except I loved her dearly.
A calmness is inside me because God has plans for her. Diane was loved by so many; what a blessing.
Thank you all for caring and showing your love and support during these difficult and trying days.
Mrs. Schostak, whose West End roots date back to the pioneer days in the Hoh River valley, began a career in the tourism industry after the timber crisis of the early 1990s.
She became director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce in 1997 and was hired to become executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau in 2006.
Citing health issues and a desire to spend more time with family, Mrs. Schostak retired as executive director of the regional visitor bureau in July 2014.
The daughter of a logger, Schostak met her future husband, Ken, at a Saturday night dance in 1978 and was engaged two days later.
The Schostaks ran a shake and shingle mill until the northern spotted owl landed on the threatened species list, affecting an already-lagging timber industry.
The couple realized that the regional economy had to shift, Mrs. Schostak told a Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce audience at a 2006 luncheon.
The Schostaks opened an outfitting business, serving as guides for young explorers drawn to the natural beauty of the coastline.
By 1992, Mrs. Schostak was collaborating with other tourism businesses and organized a tour for travel journalists.
Her great-grandfather was John Huelsdonk — the Iron Man of the Hoh — a homesteader who settled near Forks in 1891.
According to legend, Huelsdonk carried an iron stove on his back as he trekked along the river. Mrs.
Schostak quipped at the 2006 luncheon that he was actually carrying a shifting sack of flour.
A family spokeswoman posted on Facebook last week that Mrs. Schostak was in Bakersfield with her daughter, Crystal Schostak, and two twin grandchildren.
More than 130 well-wishers told Schostak what she meant to them at a Jan. 16 dinner and silent-auction benefit held on her behalf at Lake Crescent Lodge.
The benefit, billed as “A Night with Diane,” raised about $9,000 to help cover Mrs. Schostak’s medical expenses as she was being treated for stage 4 breast cancer.
At the event, Schostak told the Peninsula Daily News that she had “lived a blessed life.”
“Life is important, and the care we have for each other is probably the most important thing we have,” Mrs. Schostak said.
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Staff writers Rob Ollikainen and Paul Gottlieb and features editor Diane Urbani de la Paz contributed to this report.
