Lt. Col. Brian Ellis, a 1993 graduate of the Naval Academy, was a proud Marine and hardworking father who would drop everything to help another person, friends said.

Ellis, 53, was among the 67 victims of Wednesday night’s plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Charlottesville, Virginia, resident spent more than two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps and most recently worked as a senior manager at Deloitte.

He was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 5342 and returning home from Kansas after a work trip, friends said. The plane was about to land before 9 p.m. when an Army helicopter collided with the jet, plunging both aircraft into the Potomac River. There were no survivors.

“Our hearts go out to all those who experienced loss through this devastating event,” said John Schofield, a spokesperson for the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association. “Among those on board was one of our own — Brian Ellis ’93, a former Navy football player and proud graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends and the entire Naval Academy community who mourn his passing.”

Ellis was born March 25, 1971, as James Brian Ellis, but he always went by his middle name. Later, his friends just started calling him “Ellis.”

He attended Morrow High School in Georgia, where he was a star quarterback on the football team and a talented trombone player, classmate Matthew McCord said.

“There was nothing he wasn’t good at,” said McCord, who is a judge in Georgia. He held a moment of silence for Ellis in his courtroom this week. “The whole town was proud of Brian, and I think that’s still true today.”

Larry Volman, Ellis’ high school trombone teacher, said he was a well-rounded student who excelled academically. His family was involved in the school community and could often be found at fundraisers, games and other events, he said.

Ellis went to the Naval Academy in 1989, and he quickly met three men who would become lifelong friends: Chad Chatlos, Mark McGinnis and Ché Bolden. All four played on the Navy football team, and Ellis was a quarterback.

He played in 22 games for Navy during the 1991 and 1992 seasons, according to College Football Reference. He was the backup quarterback heading into the 1992 season but started after Jim Kubiak dislocated his shoulder in the opening game.

Ellis himself was injured in the next game against Boston College, when he fractured his jaw. He spent about two months with his jaw wired shut, Chatlos said, but made it back for the last game of the year against Army.

Later, his squadron turned his football acumen into the joking nickname “Johnny Utah,” friends said.

After graduation, the four friends moved into the same apartment complex in Annapolis and helped coach football at Navy. They would grab dinner or play tennis during the week and head to Ocean City on the weekends, Chatlos said. Later, they enjoyed playing golf together.

“He was more of an introvert versus the extrovert, but he could be extroverted,” Chatlos said. “He was a great dude, normal dude, very approachable, and would do anything to help people.”

Ellis was also very organized and detail oriented — “somebody that always could see through things and know what the possibilities were on the other side,” McGinnis said.

When Ellis’ phone rang, he always answered it, McGinnis said. Ellis was the glue that kept their friend group together through good and bad times, he said.

Ellis loved “recklessly and without abandonment,” McGinnis added, especially when it came to his two sons, Jack and Luke.

The four friends thought it was important that their children grew up together, so they made it a priority to vacation together during the summers. The trips were often full of shenanigans — McGinnis burst into laughter recalling the time Luke accidentally crashed a golf cart in Mexico, sending Ellis flying through the center of the vehicle.

“We weren’t friends,” McGinnis said. “We were brothers, and we were family.”

McGinnis and Bolden asked Ellis to be their children’s godfather. Ellis drew his strength from his loved ones, Bolden said, and never allowed something that was bothering him to bring others down.

His boys were the most important part of his life, and he would do anything for them, Bolden said. Until about three years ago, he spent almost every weekend coaching his son’s high school lacrosse team.

“He was a very good influence and a good presence in our lives,” Bolden said.

Ellis spent nearly 22 years in the Marine Corps. He was a true American who would have given his life for his country, his friends said.

He was an aviator for the majority of his career but later worked as an analyst and strategic communicator, according to his LinkedIn page. His professional reputation was stellar, Bolden said, and he was known as a quality officer.

That’s what makes his death, especially in this manner, so hard to swallow, friends said. Ellis was a helicopter pilot — and a very good one — who had flown in some of the most dangerous environments one could imagine, they said.

“A couple hundred combat sorties as a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps, and then he spent a year basically on the ground as an adviser for the Iraqi police force,” McGinnis said. “He makes it through all that, and then, ironically, he dies in a helicopter crash.”

In addition to his two sons, Ellis is survived by his parents and two siblings.

Baltimore Banner reporter Tim Prudente contributed to this article.