Region said goodbye to many in 2006
Sunday, December 31, 2006 12:06 AM PST
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe local area bade farewell a large number of prominent citizens in 2006, including pioneers, community and business leaders, church founders, politicians, philanthropists, educators, artists and writers.
Space does not permit a complete list, but here are a few of the noteworthy folks we'll remember:
Dick Price
75, formerly of Longview, Jan. 6 in Vancouver. He got his start in golf at the Longview Country Club, where his dad was the golf pro, and rose to become the most dominant amateur golfer in the Pacific Northwest through the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
Jane (Gilbreth) Heppes
83, Longview, Jan. 10. The youngest of the "Cheaper by the Dozen" family whose lives were immortalized in two books and four movies.
A Longview resident since 1988, she was born June 22, 1922, in Nantucket, Mass., to efficiency expert Frank B. Gilbreth and engineer Lillian M. Gilbreth. As they raised their dozen children, the Gilbreths applied their workplace theories to the management of the home -- often to humorous effect.
For her volunteer time to this community, Heppes was named Altrusan of the Year in 1998.
Archie "Mick" Vivian
formerly of Kalama, Jan. 19 in Mount Vernon, Wash. A 1951 Kalama High School graduate, Vivian was the only guard in Washington state prep basketball history to play in four consecutive state championship games. He taught at Lincoln School and at Mount Vernon High School for 16 years and coached football, basketball and baseball.
Ed Hendrickson
98, Kalama, Jan. 28. A Kalama resident since 1919, Hendrickson was Port of Kalama manager from 1950 to 1972 and was responsible for bringing the first major industry, North Pacific Grain Growers, into the Port of Kalama.
"He found the business and put the deal together," said Mark Wilson, the port's planning manager. "Those jobs have been here for 45 years. He helped put the port on the map."
Hendrickson also laid the groundwork for the port's marina and built Marine Park.
Viola Bailey
107, Longview, Jan. 30. She was the last living charter member of the '23 Club, the organization that celebrates Longview's founding families. In 1922 Bailey, at age 24, spent 12 days motoring to Longview from Minnesota in a Ford touring car with her husband, John, their two daughters and a friend.
"There were times that were tough and there were times that were easy," Bailey remembered in a 1999 Daily News account of the trek, which including camping and cooking over open fires.
Henry Paul
75, Longview, Feb. 5. Founder of Henri's Restaurant, a local fine dining establishment he opened in December 1964 in West Longview. Before that he worked as the first chef at Bart's Restaurant in Longview. He loved cooking, working on the family farm, and wine making.
Oren Tweet
82, Clatskanie, Feb. 12. He served more than three decades on the Clatskanie City Council, owned several Clatskanie businesses and was such a strong advocate for behind-the-scenes community service that the city named its community service award in his honor -- and made him the first recipient in 1993.
"He was the most outstanding citizen Clatskanie ever had," retired Clatskanie Police Chief Dave Nelson said.
Louise Thompson
69, Longview, Feb. 20. She helped establish the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program in Cowlitz County. CASA volunteers give time and help to abused or neglected children in foster care.
As the mother of a deaf child, Thompson promoted services for the deaf. She was a sign-language interpreter in the Longview School District and taught sign language at Lower Columbia College. Her interest in the well-being of children who were deaf or hard of hearing grew to include all children who required advocacy.
Herb Hadley
81, Longview, March 2. Former state legislator and owner/operator of Hadley Travel, a distinctive eight-sided building in West Kelso. Born in Longview in 1924, he graduated from R.A. Long High School in 1942. In 1962 he won election to the state House, becoming the first Republican to represent the 18th District in 16 years. Although he narrowly lost his re-election bid, the outspoken Hadley he remained politically involved the rest of his life.
Howard Rankin
94, former Longview resident, March 2 in Shelton, Wash. A photographer, he spent his career recording the faces and places of local history, including Longview founder Robert A. Long, fishermen at Oak Point, the 1948 Columbia River flood and Indians at Celilo Falls in Oregon. He also served as the chief photographer of the 13th Naval District. Rankin owned and operated Rankin Studios, starting in Kelso in the 1930s, then in downtown Longview for 44 years. He sold the business in 1978.
Grace Reade
59, Longview, March 3. The Liverpool, England, transplant became a Daily News food columnist in January 2000, writing recipes and chatty anecdotes. In 2004 she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but she continued writing her column until fall 2005. The Daily News chronicled her treatment.
Helen Brekke Smith
99, of Longview, March 12. A longtime teacher, reading advocate and philanthropist, she moved to Longview in 1930 to teach Latin, French and English at R.A. Long High School. She taught full-time 20 years and was a substitute for another 20. In 1982 she created the R.A.A. Smith and Helen B. Smith Charitable Foundation, which awards numerous grants each year to projects that focus on public education, health, affordable housing and character building.
Lee Wollenberg
88, Longview, March 15. She spent more than 60 years quietly organizing and supporting Longview civic and charitable groups. Wollenberg never sought recognition, but friends and family said she was deeply dedicated to the numerous causes she championed, many involving children.
Henry Enns
93, Toutle, April 6. Retired schoolteacher and founder of Toutle Community Bible Church, now known as Toutle Christian Fellowship. He came to Toutle in 1950 and taught wood shop, driver's ed and German at Toutle Lake High School through the 1970s. After retirement, he continued to open his garage to fifth-grade wood shop students.
Ralph Smith
90, Longview, April 9. He and his wife, Myrtle, held Bible studies for teens and young adults in their home in the 1970s. The warm, music-based gatherings drew attendees from all over Southwest Washington and led to the formation of a new church, Shekinah Christian Center, in 1979.
JoLe Miller
69, Vader, April 18. The founder and CEO of Arkitecky Toys, handcrafted alderwood building sets which blended Miller's training as a special-education teacher with her love of nature. Miller also grew and sold organic salads from her Moss Mountain Farm and was a freelance writer for The Daily News and other publications.
Eleanor Makinster
82, Rainier, May 16. A freelance columnist and expert cook, Makinster wrote "The Recipe Tree" for The Daily News from 1969 to 1987, interviewing more than 300 local cooks. Her husband, Clifford, 81, died four months after she did.
Rollin Schimmel
61, Pendleton, Ore., formerly of Rainier, May 20 in a whitewater rafting accident. Schimmel graduated from Rainier High School in 1963, where he captured the state wrestling title at 157 pounds. He had a 94-9-1 college record. He coached high school wrestling in Pendleton and Hillsboro. In 2001, Schimmel was inducted into Oregon's National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He also earned the Lifetime Service To Wrestling award from the organization.
"Rollin was a fine individual, the kind that only comes around a few times in a lifetime," said Larry Wallace, former Rainier wrestling coach and principal.
Jim Callihan
89, Longview, May 30. A genial man with a booming bass voice, the Lower Columbia College instructor staged musicals such as "Finian's Rainbow," "Carousel," "Kismet," and "Damn Yankees" (in which he played the role of the Devil) and operas such as "Triumph of Honor," "The Medium," "The Telephone," "Down in the Valley" and "Amahl and the Night Visitors." He also was a champion trap shooter, collecting a pile of medals and trophies, including the state championship in 1964. In 1970, he won all the overall titles in all the major Northwest trap shoots and finished fifth in the Olympic Trials.
Jess Jacobs
91, Kelso, July 19. He was born in Freeport, a Cowlitz River town later swallowed up by Longview, and was raised in Carrolls. Regarded as a mental storehouse of local history, his memories included the 1923 collapse of the Cowlitz River Bridge that killed at least 17 people. A respecter of nature, he hauled hundreds of buckets of leaf mold to replenish the soil on his property, then planted a forest.
Royal Johnson
81, Kelso, July 27. He was head coach of the Kelso Hilanders basketball team for 14 years beginning in 1955, getting them to the state tournament twice.
"I learned you can be a competitive man and still have a kind and gentle spirit," said his son, Jeff, who served as the team mascot.
Johnson also taught history and civics at Kelso High until he retired in the 1980s. A World War II veteran, he earned four Bronze battle stars before age 20 and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. In 1995 he visited the battle site in Belgium and met one of the Germans he held prisoner.
Martha Boentgen
86, Skamokawa, Aug. 23. Local artist, community leader and art instructor for 19 years at Lower Columbia College.
"I really think teaching was my lifeline," she said. "I like the intellectual interchange between student and instructor."
She had an art gallery and studio called River Art, in a turn-of-the century waterfront home she restored on Skamokawa Creek and owned the Skamokawa Town Center.
Janey Austin-Smith
54, Longview, Aug. 26. A community activist, she lobbied for peace and justice as a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Fairness Coalition. She was a Master Gardener and committed environmentalist, active in Earth Day and the annual AIDS walk, a volunteer with Community Action Council and other agencies, and a longtime member and officer of the Willapa Hills Audubon Society.
Dr. Phillip Avalon
82, Cathlamet, Oct. 8. Revered as an old-time country doctor, he delivered hundreds of babies, treated logging injuries and developed a cohesive emergency response system for Wahkiakum County by the time he retired in 1994. He also served on the school board and was Cathlamet Man of the Year in 1977.
Lilyann Windus
87, Longview, Oct. 17. Local painter, community leader. Windus taught art at Lower Columbia College for a few years until about 1950 and remained involved in the Broadway Gallery and the LCC Art Gallery after she left teaching.
"She was a big influence in the art community," said fellow artist and teacher Art Miller.
Kay Sinnett
76, Longview, Oct. 20. The vivacious blonde matriarch of Longview's Market Place grocery family and a consummate fundraiser for St. John Medical Center. In 2002, she became the first recipient of the St. John Medical Center Foundation's Woman of the Year award, in honor her work raising $500,000 for cancer equipment and local facilities, including the Lower Columbia Regional Cancer Center.
"When Kay walked into a room, you knew it. ... That woman just loved life and all it had to offer her," said Sister Rose Marie Nigro.
Lloyd Staats
77, formerly of Longview, Oct. 25 in Clackamas, Ore. He was the Army Corps of Engineers chief resident engineer during the aftermath of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Staats oversaw millions of dollars in projects, including the construction of a drainage tunnel at Spirit Lake. He also monitored dredging projects and built dikes and dams.
"When he had something to say, anybody with any brains listened," said Pat Keough of Milwaukie, Ore., former chief planner for the Portland District.
Lauri Hakso
78, Longview, Dec. 3. The Finnish native visited Longview as a missionary in 1959, and in 1964 he emigrated here and founded the Laestadian Lutheran Church in Longview. As the church's first lay pastor, he frequently invited strangers to attend services.
"We don't prepare our sermons," Hakso said in 2001. "I have to trust that God will reveal."
Leonard "Maggie" Magnuson
91, Kelso, Dec. 8. He owned several local businesses, including Maggie's Machine Shop, Maggie's Electrical, a grocery store, a boat moorage, Maggie’s Fix It Shop and the Purple Pup Drive Inn. He was an inventor but scoffed at patenting anything. If a special tool or device was needed, he would simply make it in his machine shop. He loved to fly single-engine planes and was member of the Twin City Flying Club in Kelso for more than 50 years. He was one of the first pilots to fly over Mount St. Helens after it erupted in 1980.
"He is known as the person to go to if you ever needed any kind of job done that required a special tool or machinery," his family wrote. "Chances are, Maggie either had it, or he could make it."
Clyde Schurman
92, Woodland, Dec. 10. He owned and operated Schurman Machine Works in Woodland, which he opened in 1939. His hobby was restoring antiques. At age 87, he presented the city of Woodland with a restored 1928 Peter Pirsch fire engine, the first new fire engine the city ever owned. The project took about $10,000 and an estimated 500 hours of labor over eight years. Schurman said he had to completely dismantle the truck and rebuild it from the frame up.
"Somebody told me I can't take this stuff with me when I leave this earth," he said. "Being part of history, some things ought to be kept."
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