Son of Utah couple killed in Nepal copter crash

LAYTON — A Utah family lost their oldest son in a helicopter crash in Nepal last weekend, but they know he died doing something he was passionate about.

"He was helping people protect and love the world as much as he did," Vicki Preece said Monday night, dabbing her tear-filled eyes with a tissue as she shuffled through photographs on her family's kitchen table.

Matthew Preece, 31, was returning with 23 other World Wildlife Fund colleagues and government officials from a ceremony in which the care of wildlife and habitats surrounding Kanchenjunga was turned over to the local communities.

With low-lying clouds obscuring visibility, the helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain Saturday and exploded. No one aboard survived, and very few identifiable human remains were found at the site Monday.

Preece said her son grew up loving his environment, "collecting rocks and picking mushrooms off trees like all boys did."

Living in nearly 19 places in the past seven years, Matthew did what his parents believed he loved doing, and he documented everything with pictures.

Matthew had been a program officer with the WWF since May. He was assigned to the Eastern Himalayan region and was responsible for developing projects to help local people maintain and protect their environment. Before he worked for the WWF, his mother said Matthew's career took him around the world, where he taught high school students various methods of preservation and sustenance.

"He just wanted to do good things, be kind and help people learn how to take care of things," she said. "He touched a lot of lives."

The Preeces are an adventurous family, but Stuart Preece said out of his five children, Matthew was by far the most venturesome. Some of the places Matthew had visited recently, he said, were Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, India and St. Croix.

"His nieces and nephews were always excited to see what Uncle Matt had brought them from the various places he'd been," Stuart Preece said, adding his son lived within the communities where he worked.

"He got to understand people in a way that was helpful. I appreciated his concern and love for them," he said.

Matthew served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile and learned to speak fluent Spanish, which Vicki Preece said was of great help to her son in his career.

She said she was never openly concerned about his well-being but loved knowing he was safe wherever he was.

"In my heart, I always breathed easier once he made it back to American soil," she said. "This time he did not."