This year brought its own share of hardship. Here are just a few of the people we lost:

• Chris Hixon, a 1986 Pleasant Valley graduate and athlete, was among the 17 killed when a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in Feb. 14. He was the athletic director at the school.

As a student at Pleasant Valley, Hixon made his mark. He wrestled, played football, ran track and was involved in student government. Following Hixon’s death, former Pleasant Valley High School Principal John Gress said Hixon “was one of those kids who really got involved in everything. Anything that needed to be done, he just jumped in and he did it.”

• Howard Sexton III, 70, of Mickleton, New Jersey, was killed while passing through the Lehigh Tunnel in Washington Township. Mickleton was traveling south in the tunnel when a piece of electrical conduit broke from the ceiling, passed through the windshield of the tractor-trailer he was driving and struck him in the head.

The vehicle went on to travel south for around one mile before coming to a halt on the right shoulder, where Sexton was discovered by Turnpike Safety and State Police at Pocono deceased behind the wheel.

• Tyler Kowatch, 18, died at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia while awaiting a heart transplant. Before his death, the Jim Thorpe Area High School senior underwent emergency surgery to address complications from hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Kowatch also sustained three corrective open-heart surgeries by the time he turned 3 years old.

Memorial donations were made in Kowatch’s name to The Cardiac Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

• Zachary Anthony, a Kunkletown native, died in the line of duty on March 22, after the partial collapse of a former piano factory in York. Firefighter Ivan Flanscha was also killed, and two other firefighters were seriously injured. The cause of the fire, which started March 21, remains undetermined.

Anthony was a member of the Polk Township Fire Department before joining York Fire Department. Following their deaths, Warriors’ Watch Riders held a line of duty death escort for Anthony and Flanscha, riding their motorcycles from Keystone Harley-Davidson to the Polk Township Volunteer Fire Company in honor of the fallen servicemen.

• The search for a missing Montgomery man ended with the discovery of his body in the area of Penn Forest Township. Jeremy Cosmi, 25, of Souderton, went missing in August. His body was found almost a week later. Carbon County Coroner Robert Miller said Cosmi died from methamphetamine toxicity, and in December, his death was ruled accidental.

• Four hundred students and community members gathered on the Pleasant Valley High School soccer field to remember Schyler Herman, who died after a 13-month long battle with leukemia on Halloween night. Herman was a sophomore, a goalie for the soccer team, and formerly a member of the junior varsity basketball team.

• Rush Township Police Chief Joseph E. Lipsett III passed away in May in the Lehigh Valley Health Network Schuylkill East Medical Center. Lipsett was a retired state trooper who served for 31 years. In 2007, he was elected county coroner, a position he served in until 2011. In January 2012, Lipsett was named a county detective, and in January 2017, he became Rush Township’s police chief.

• The SS. Peter and Paul parish in Lehighton mourned the loss of its priest, Rev. Michael Ahrensfield, who died unexpectedly early September. He had served as the parish’s pastor since 2008.

• McKayla Ann Wall, a senior at Tamaqua Area High School, died in February from a pulmonary embolism. She was a member of the Tamaqua Raider Marching Band. Seven of Wall’s fellow Blue Raiders received $500 for college through a scholarship established in her name.