Paddy Fitch

ESCANABA — Paddy Fitch, 82, of Escanaba, an active community member and volunteer, was killed in a traffic crash Tuesday on Highway M-35 on Escanaba’s south side.

Fitch was killed shortly before 4:30 p.m. when the pickup truck she was driving struck the back of a semi-tractor trailer that had stopped for a school bus, which was dropping off children on the 3200 block of Lakeshore Drive/M-35. She died at the scene.

The driver of the semi, Jeffery Egge, 46 of Gillet, Wis., was not injured.

For more than four decades, Fitch was involved with the Boy Scouts, first serving as a den leader for her two sons when they were Cub Scout-aged.

Fitch was also involved with the YMCA. In the 1980s, she was chosen to lead the capital campaign to raise money for the creation of a YMCA in Delta County. By 1985, the YMCA was in operation but had no facilities. Before the current Northern Lights YMCA was constructed in 1990, Fitch would teach swim lessons to Delta County residents through the YMCA in private pools across the county.

Following the construction of the current Y, Fitch continued to teach swim lessons for pre-schoolers and older youths from the learnings center, instructed water aerobics classes six times a week, served on the YMCA board, and assisted the Y with organizational tasks and by serving on committees.