NSU faculty member among victims of Kansas plane crash

(Broken Arrow, Okla.)--Funeral services have been announced for Garrett Coble, assistant professor of marketing at Northeastern State University-Broken Arrow who was the victim of a plane crash on May 11. The service will be this Thursday, May 17, 2:00, Christ's Chapel on the ORU campus. The family has requested no flowers so information will be forthcoming regarding donation opportunities.

Coble, 29, died when the twin-engine Cessna 401 in which he was a passenger crashed near Chanute, Kan. Also killed were pilot Luke Sheets, 23, of Ephraim, Wisc., and Stephen Luth, 22, of Muscatine, Iowa. Austin Anderson, 27, of Ringwood died of his injuries after being taken to a hospital in Wichita, Kan. Hannah Luce, 22, of Golden Valley, Texas, was hospitalized in Kansas City, Kan., with critical injuries.

"The NSU community is extremely saddened by the loss of Professor Coble," said NSU President Steve Turner. "His service to our students at the Broken Arrow campus was meaningful and appreciated. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends and to his friends' families who also experienced significant loss as a result of this tragic accident."

The group left Jones Riverside Airport in Jenks en route to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to attend a Christian youth rally, Acquire the Fire, organized by Teen Mania Ministries. Coble had served on missions for the group.

Coble was a graduate of Henryetta High School and was to receive a Ph.D.in business administration with a marketing emphasis from Oklahoma State University this August. He served as a visiting professor of marketing at Oral Roberts University during the 2010-11 academic year before joining the faculty at NSUBA in August 2011.

While an instructor at Oklahoma State, Coble received three outstanding graduate teaching awards. He was also a member of the American Marketing Association and the Association for Consumer Research.

Dr. Roger Collier, dean of the NSU College of Business and Technology, called Coble a valued instructor, colleague and "a good friend."

"In the short time Garrett was a faculty member at NSU, he had a positive impact on his students and on his faculty colleagues in the Department of Business Administration and the College of Business and Technology," Collier said. "He was at the beginning of a promising academic career. We will miss him."