EAGLE COUNTY — Searchers Wednesday recovered the body of a 51-year- old Utah inventor who crashed his single-engine Cessna 182 about one-tenth of a mile from Lake Josephine in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area, authorities said.
The victim was Michael Loveless of Price, Utah, who crashed following a business trip to a Denver trade show, according to friends and 2nd Lt. Tricia Sargent of the Colorado Civil Air Patrol.
Loveless was an inventor who patented wet-dry shop vacuums, dustless attachments to heavy equipment and a vacuum for fireplaces. He also was a Mormon bishop at a congregation for college students at the College of Eastern Utah in Price, said Gary Blake, a family friend.
“He had an enthusiasm for life,” Blake said. “He was always having a fun day. He was very well liked.”
He was married and had two adult children.
