Shark-attack victim loved ocean too much to worry about dangers

By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor

WAILUKU, Maui — Willis "Will" McInnis spent so much time in the ocean that his older brother often worried that eventually he'd have a run-in with a shark.

MCINNIS

"It's their territory, and if something happens, it happens."

McInnis, 57, of Kahana, was surfing at 7 a.m. Wednesday at the S-Turns break off Pohaku Park when he was bitten by a shark on the right leg. He died from massive blood loss before he could be brought to shore.

Witnesses did not see the animal and officials said there's no way of knowing whether it was a tiger shark, the most common culprit in serious shark-bite cases in Hawai'i.

At noon yesterday, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources reopened beaches a mile north and south of the S-Turns surf spot in Kahana that had been closed since the shark attack. A county Department of Fire Control helicopter, two DLNR boats and two personal watercraft operated by county water safety officers patrolled the nearshore waters in the morning and did not spot sharks or anything that might attract sharks, such as large schools of fish or mother-calf humpback whales, said Russell Sparks of DLNR's Division of Aquatic Resources.

Fish, 62, of Piqua, Ohio, said yesterday he last saw his brother in the summer when McInnis stopped by during a six-month tour zig-zagging across the country on his Harley-Davidson. McInnis, who served in the Army in Germany during the Vietnam War, was a retired salesman with an adventurous spirit who stood more than 6 feet tall.

"When you first saw my brother your judgment would tell you to stay away from this great big bear who looked like a rough-and-tumble guy. But as soon as you talked to him, you felt the spirit of Christ coming from him," he said.

Family and friends noted that McInnis was a devout Christian. Fish, who said he changed his own first and last name "to honor Christ," said his brother experienced a spiritual awakening about eight years ago.

Their father was a pilot for Northwest Orient Airlines and the family first came to Hawai'i on vacation when McInnis and Fish were kids. Their mother returned in the 1970s, and the two boys followed.

Fish ran a tour company on Maui for 10 years before moving back to the Mainland, and McInnis moved back to Bend, Ore., in the late 1980s and stayed about 10 years until his son, Mark, graduated from high school.

During that time he worked in time-share sales at Eagle Crest Resort in Central Oregon. Retired sales vice president Paul Loberg yesterday said McInnis was a top salesman who was universally loved. More recently, McInnis conducted time-share sales for Trendwest Resorts in Fiji.

"They don't come any better than that. He touched a lot of people around here," Loberg said. "There were a lot of tears when we heard the news."

Mark McInnis, 23, of Eugene, Ore., said his father loved the ocean. "He was in it every day, surfing, spear-fishing, treasure-hunting for things he located with his metal detector," he said.

"There wasn't anything about Hawai'i he didn't like. He loved the people, the water, the mountains, the sun."

McInnis, who arrived on Maui yesterday afternoon, said that if his father had to die, he's glad it happened while he was surfing.

Willis McInnis also has a sister, Darlene Skinner, who lives in Washington state.

Funeral plans have not been announced. Fish said his brother's ashes will be scattered in the ocean off the Kaleialoha condominium in Kahana where their mother once lived, and where the ashes of their mother and sister were scattered.