Chatham-Kent was reeling yesterday from the loss of four well-known residents in a weekend plane crash. Dr. Jim Allen, brothers Tom and Ted Reeve and Robert Brisco were among 10 people killed when a single-engine Cessna 208B Caravan crashed into Lake Erie shortly after takeoff from Pelee Island.

The four men were returning from a pheasant-hunting trip to the island.

Allen, 51, who lived in Mitchell's Bay in Chatham-Kent, was an orthopedic surgeon.

Tom Reeve, 49, was a popular Chatham-Kent police staff sergeant.

His only sibling, Ted, 53, was well known in the labour movement in Chatham.

Brisco, 46, was an avid outdoorsman who shared his love of fishing and hunting with Allen and the Reeve brothers.

"I'm in shock -- I still can't believe it," said Brisco's brother, Paul, of London.

Allen, a highly regarded orthopedic specialist who trained in London and Ireland, was remembered yesterday as a big teddy bear of a man beloved by his patients.

He was a native of London and a former University of Western Ontario football star who played on the 1971 national championship- winning team.

Linda Caldwell, an official with the Victorian Order of Nurses in Chatham-Kent, said Allen was one of the top orthopedic doctors in Canada.

"He was a great guy, a great big bruiser of a man, but sort of like a teddy bear," added London sports medicine specialist Dr. Peter Fowler, who helped train Allen and kept in touch with him over the years.

"His patients all liked Jimmy."

Allen's death is a huge loss to a community such as Chatham-Kent because of the difficulty of recruiting doctors to work in smaller communities, Fowler said.

Allen was one of two orthopedic doctors who worked in a sports medicine and rehabilitation group in Chatham-Kent.

Former Free Press sports reporter Bob Gage recalled Allen as a "very good" football lineman at Western.

"He was a hard-nosed player, but also a great team player," Gage said.

"He was a fellow who would go all out for the team."

Gage said Allen stood out -- even on a football team of great players.

The 1971 team beat Alberta for the national title in a 15-14 thriller at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

Allen grew up in London, the son of Dr. Hugh Allen. He went to Westminster secondary school before going to Western.

After going to Ireland for his medical training, Allen returned to London to train as an orthopedic specialist.

Londoner Ron Potter, an assistant football coach at Western when Allen played on the team, said members of the championship team stayed in touch and got together for a reunion every five or six years.

Allen also remained an avid Western football fan, said Potter.

"Jim would often sit with his dad, who had season tickets not far from mine."

Tom Reeve was a staff sergeant with the Chatham-Kent police force.

He would have celebrated his 30th anniversary with the force in June.

Ted Reeve will be greatly missed by the labour movement, said his friend, Joe McCabe, a Canadian Auto Workers union national representative.

Reeve served for several years as the CAW union's skilled trades representative at the International Truck and Engine plant in Chatham.

"Ted was a wonderful person for speaking up for workers' rights," said McCabe.

The doomed plane's pilot was Wayne Price, 33, of Richmond Hill. His girlfriend, Jamie Levine, 28, of Los Angeles, Calif., also died in the crash.

Chris Sexsmith, Price's former neighbour, remembered the pilot as "a great guy with a great sense of humour.

"I feel absolutely horrible --he didn't have a nasty bone in his body," said Sexsmith.

He said he often saw Price with Levine.