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Mion, Angelo Joseph Monday, 25 Nov 2002
Angelo Joseph Mion, a 14-year resident of Bainbridge Island, died in his sleep Nov. 25 at his home.
He was born June 12, 1910 in Atlanta, Ga., of Italian immigrant parents. The death of his father when Angelo was 7 necessitated his mother’s return to Italy with his three sisters. He lived in Italy until he was 18, at which time he returned to the United States and began a career in the tile-terrazzo-marble trade, working for his uncle in Atlanta.
He was a decorated World War II veteran, having served in the Navy’s Construction Battalion (SeaBees) in the Pacific Theater.
After the war, he went to California where he founded Florentine Tile and Terrazzo in Los Angeles. In time, he added marble and granite fabrication to his company’s services and was able to expand the business to Palm Springs and San Diego.
He moved his family to San Diego in 1957 to focus on his business there. His company, renamed the Florentine Company, grew to become the dominant construction company of its kind in Southern California. It was responsible for thousands of contracts for granite, marble, ceramic tile and glass mosaic installation throughout the area.
In 1982, the San Diego Union did a feature article on him and all the marble work he was responsible for, including many of San Diego’s office towers, hotels, banks, museums, hospitals and custom residences. Renowned for quality and reliability, Florentine was the only contractor, out of the more than 100 that worked on the original Jack Murphy (now Qualcomm) Stadium, that the city did not require to provide a performance bond.
Florentine was also named “One of the Hundred Best Things about San Diego” by San Diego Home and Garden magazine and has continued to win many accolades for its contribution to the regional building industry.
He was devoted to his family. Always active and competitive, he took up golf in his 50s, played racquetball until he was 71, and kept supervising Florentine’s many large projects until he was in 76.
At age 75, after a 57-year absence, he returned to Italy for a tour with his family. In 1988, shortly after retiring, he moved with his wife to Bainbridge Island, to live with his daughter and her husband, Marie and David Spooner.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Eunice, and daughter Marie Spooner, both of Bainbridge Island; son Ronald (Glenda) Mion of Del Mar, Calif.; and four grandchildren, Angela Spooner Hanson, Nicole Mion, Gregory Spooner and Jessica Mion.
Services were held Nov. 27 at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, with interment at Port Blakely cemetery. Donations can be made to: The Mustard Seed School, c/o St. Cecilia Catholic Church, 1310 Madison Ave N, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.
Arrangements were under the direction of Kass Funeral Home.
McCombs, Stewart 'Stu' William Sunday, 24 Nov 2002
Stewart “Stu” William McCombs, Jr., died Nov. 24 at his Bainbridge Island home after a long illness.
He was born Oct. 3, 1930 in Minneapolis, Minn., the son of Stewart William McCombs, Sr. and Alice Mason Douglas.
He grew up and attended college in Phoenix, Ariz. He was an Air Force pilot during the Korean conflict.
He settled in Honolulu and during his 38 years there worked primarily with Starr Seigle McCombs Advertising Agency. He was Man of the Year in 1982 for the Advertising Federation of Hawaii and the Silver Medal winner in 1984 as honored by the Advertising Agency Association of America.
He was involved in many charitable works. He served on the board of directors for the Pacific Foundation for Cancer Research, Goodwill Industries of Honolulu, Children’s Advocacy of Honolulu, Easter Seal Society of Hawaii; as president of AAAA of Hawaii, and as president of Economic Development Corporation of Hawaii.
For nine years, he was the first tee announcer for the Lady’s Hawaiian Open and he was an accomplished golfer himself, USGA Senior Champion of Hawaii twice and enjoyed playing at Wing Point Golf and Country Club when he moved to Bainbridge Island.
His his survived by wife Keiki, Bainbridge Island; one son, Douglas Stewart McCombs, Bainbridge Island; one daughter, Sally McCombs Wilburn, Volcano, Hawaii; one sister, Joanne Hayward, Phoenix, Ariz.; and four grandchildren.
A family gathering and celebration of life will be held at a later date. Contributions may be made to Hospice of Kitsap County, Box 3416, Silverdale, WA 98383.
Arrangements are under the direction of Kass Funeral Home, Bainbridge Island.
Jackson, David Larry Wednesday, 20 Nov 2002
Lifelong island resident David Larry Jackson, 56, died Nov. 20 of heart failure on Bainbridge Island while playing volleyball.
He was born Sept. 2, 1946 in Seattle to Erik and Eva (Ubel) Jackson. He graduated from Bainbridge Island High School in 1964, served in the Air Force in Guam and the Philippines and returned to the Island in 1969.
He worked for two years as a mechanic at Goodfellow Chrysler Plymouth in the University District.
In 1972, with his brother-in-law Jesse McFarlane, he opened Mac-N-Jack Island Service in Eagledale which is still in operation.
He loved to play volleyball and work with his Lionel train collection. He recently restored a ‘55 Chevy pickup and enjoyed attending car shows with it.
He and Ora built their log cabin home and he was an avid gardener and wine maker.
He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Ora, of Bainbridge; his son Larry of Oakland, Calif.; his daughter Erika Lahtela of Bainbridge; one brother, Arnold Jackson of Bainbridge; and one sister, Dianne McFarlane of Bainbridge.
Visitation will be at 1-4 p.m. Nov. 23 at Kass Funeral Home. Funeral services will be 1:30 p.m. Nov. 24 at Bainbridge Island Alliance Church, 9624 Sportsman Club Road. Burial will be at Port Blakely cemetery.
Remembrances may be made to Port Blakely cemetery, P.O. Box 10001, Bainbridge. Arrangements are under the direction of Kass Funeral Home, Bainbridge Island.
Luedicke, Marian Nicholson Wednesday, 20 Nov 2002
Former island resident Marian Nicholson Luedicke, age 83, died Nov. 20 in Olympic Care and Rehabilitation Center in Sequim.
She was born Oct. 9, 1919 in Milwaukee, Wis. to Ruth Morgan Nicholson and Joseph W. Nicholson. She graduated from Hartford Avenue School before entering Milwaukee University in 1934, where she was captain of the White Team and was voted Best All-Around Girl.
She attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., majoring in piano in the School of Music. She then studied at Prospect Hall Secretarial School in Milwaukee.
Durring World War II she was a stenographer at the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. She resigned when she married
Lynn C. Surles and moved to Texas to join him at the Air Force Base in Austin. The couple had three children, two of whom survive: Mark Surles of Bonny Doon, Calif., and Laurie Bendon of LaQuinta, Calif.
She divorced and was employed as executive secretary at Astronautics Corp. of America and subsequently at First Wisconsin Trust Co.
In August of 1976 she married
Alex H. Luedicke, Jr. and moved to Bainbridge. Upon his retirement from Boeing Co. the couple moved to Sequim.
She was a member of Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Fraternity, an active parishioner of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Sequim, and a member of the Daughters of the King and of the Sequim Senior Center.
Graveside services will be held noon Nov. 25 at the Kane cemetery on Bainbridge.
In recognition of her love for animals, remembrances may be made to any humane organization. Arrangements are under the direction of Sequim Valley Chapel.
Donahoe, Edna Boling Monday, 11 Nov 2002
Edna Boling Donahoe, age 97, died Nov. 11 at Island Health and Rehabilitation on Bainbridge Island.
She was born Dec. 24, 1904 in Elma, to Elijah and Mary Alice (Hattabaugh) Boling.
She attended college at Western Washington University where she earned her teaching credentials. She taught elementary school in Wishkah, Cosmopolis, Montesano and Hoquiam for more than 50 years until retiring in the 1970s.
She was an avid rock collector and an active member of the Eastern Star and Retired Teachers.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Eugene Donahoe and her son David Donahoe and all of her brothers and sisters. She is survived by one son, Roger Donahoe, and his wife April, Bainbridge Island; three grandchildren, Shannon Donahoe, Darcy Donahoe Wilmot, Megan Sanders and two great-grandchildren.
Remembrances in Edna’s name may be made to Hospice of Kitsap County, PO Box 3416, Silverdale, WA 98383 or to Bainbridge Island Library for the Visually Impaired, 1270 Madison Avenue North, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.
At her request, there will be no services.
Arrangements are under the direction of Kass Funeral Home, Bainbridge Island.
Wheeler, Donald Niven Friday, 08 Nov 2002
Donald Niven Wheeler, age 89, died Nov. 8 in Seattle.
He was born Oct. 23, 1913 in White Bluffs, Wash., the fifth child of Francis Marion Wheeler, a stonemason and orchardist, and Jeanie Shaw Wheeler, a teacher.
He attended White Bluffs and Woodland high schools and graduated from Queen Anne High School in Seattle.
He enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Ore. – to which he traveled his first year by boat over the Columbia River rapids.
After graduating from Reed, he attended Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. There, he rowed for the crew team, received a First on his exams and was granted a third year at the University of Paris.
In Paris, he worked for the International Brigades Office and helped returning vets on their way back home from Spain.
Upon returning to the United States, he married
Mary Lukes Vause, the widow of his best friend at Reed, Clare Vause.
Following a year of teaching at Yale University, he spent almost a decade in government in Washington, D.C., including five years as chief economist in the Office of Strategic Services.
In 1947 the family moved to Sequim, where they bought a dairy farm. They ran the dairy until 1965 when he accepted a teaching position at Franconia College in New Hampshire.
In 1968, the family went back to Oxford. Assisted by his wife, he researched the scale of agricultural enterprises under a socialist economy, for which he received his D. Phil in 1975.
In 1970 he was hired by Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada to teach economics. He retired in 1980 with the rank of Professor Emeritus and lived with his wife on Bainbridge Island,
The couple continued to lead an active life, which included political work and travel.
He was known for some amazing adventures, including ferrying logs and timber through the Priest Rapids 13 times and crossing the country several times by hitching rides on freight trains.
He played football in high school and college, and was a lifelong skater and cross-country skier.
He was an amateur mechanic and maintained his own vehicle, a Chevy II which he bought new in 1965 and was still running in 2002 – with more than 400, 000 miles on the odometer – when it was bequeathed to his great nephew, a mechanic on Bainbridge Island.
He wrote almost every day: major papers on Poland, Afghanistan, Cuba and Mexico, in addition to commentaries and letters to family, friends and political representatives. His papers will be archived at the University of Washington.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Mary, and his son, Nathaniel Robinson Wheeler. He is survived by his sons Stephen Vause and Timothy Wheeler; his daughters Susan Wheeler and Marion Wheeler Burns; his sisters Marian Wheeler Coleman and Helen Wheeler Hastay; 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A gathering to celebrate his life will be held 1:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at Seabold Community Hall.
Remembrances may be made to People’s Weekly World or any of the vast number of organizations his family supported.
Root, Stearns B. Thursday, 07 Nov 2002
Stearns B. Root, age 80, died Nov. 7 at his home on Bainbridge Island. He was born Jan. 22, 1922 in Woodmont, Conn. to Edwin and Irene (Bishop) Root.
A celebration of Stearns’ life will be held on Bainbridge Island. Call Kass Funeral Home at 842-2642 for information.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the Stearns B. Root Memorial Fund for the purchase of an oxygen saturation monitor to be donated to Virginia Mason Clinic Winslow. Please send donations in his name to Washington Mutual Bank, 231 Winslow Way E.
A complete obituary will appear in an upcoming Review.
McNeely, Robert Ward Sunday, 27 Jul 2003
Robert Ward McNeely, age 92, died July 27 in Poulsbo.
He was born July 1, 1911 in Seattle, and was married
in 1936 in Oakland, Calif.
He retired in 1975 from a career with Pacific Bell Telephone Co., moving to Bainbridge in 1994.
He is survived by two sons, Robert A. McNeely of Bainbridge and Richard J. McNeely of Carson City, Nev.; sister Katherine Mathis of Bainbridge; five grandchildren – Michael McNeely of Bremerton, Lisa Gudino of Lake Oswego, Ore., Laura Rigby of Sydney, Australia, and Dan and Robbie McNeely, both of Carson City, Nev.; and five great-grandchildren – Rickey and Emily McNeely of Carson City and Raleigh, Savannah and Wyatt Gudino of Lake Oswego.
A private family service will be held.
Arrangements are under the direction of Miller-Woodlawn of Bremerton.
Quitslund, Ford A. Wednesday, 23 Jul 2003
Ford Quitslund died July 23 at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle after a brief hospitalization.
Quitslund had deep local roots and a lifelong commitment to the well-being of Bainbridge Island.
Born July 7, 1909 on the family farm in Port Madison, he was the third of five children of Johann Olaf and Sigrid (Petterson) Quitslund.
When he was a teenager, the trip by horse-drawn wagon to deliver farm produce to the Country Club at Restoration Point took the whole day.
He attended public schools on Bainbridge. Thanks to his mother’s activism, the island’s Olympic Union High School was fully accredited by 1927, when he graduated as valedictorian in a class of seven students.
He attended Washington State College, earning a degree in business and economics in 1931.
After working in the Seattle office of a farmers’ cooperative association, he boarded a bus to New York City, carrying a letter of introduction that would lead to a job in the city produce markets.
His New York employer encouraged him to attend Cornell University’s School of Agricultural Economics, where he earned a master’s degree in 1935.
During the next 10 years, he worked in New York, Maine, and Washington, D.C.
He and Eva May “Eve” Kitchel met in 1937 in Washington, D.C. They were married
the same year, and had three sons by 1945, when they returned to Bainbridge to build on waterfront property that had been in the family since 1894.
A fourth son was born in Winslow in 1952.
In 1964, Ford and Eve moved to a second family home on the water, which he expanded over the years to provide for extended stays by returning children and grandchildren.
He was proud, too, of his conversion of much of the family farm on Torvanger Road into timber-producing open space.
In his thoughts about this project, his personal satisfaction, the interests of his children and grandchildren, and the common good of the Island were indivisible.
In his 90s, he was still planting and tending seedling trees, cutting firewood and keeping the roadways clear.
From 1945 to his retirement in 1973, Ford worked in the Seattle office of the farmers’ cooperative that became Western Farmers’ Association, serving in many capacities from office manager and supervisor of computerized accounting to controller and labor negotiator.
At home on Bainbridge, he was active in Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, various civic associations, and project-related task forces. He served for several years on the Kitsap County Planning Commission and the Bainbridge Island Comprehensive Plan Advisory Council; he was deeply committed to the long process by which the island’s Comprehensive Plan was created.
Ford Quitslund is survived by his wife of 66 years, Eve; his sons (and daughters-in-law) Jon (Toby), James (Sabine), Dana (Nancy), and Gary (Linda Whitehead); his brother, James O., all of Bainbridge; and by six grandchildren (Jesse, Beth, Philip, Gabriel, Sarah, and Signe) and one great-grandchild (Garey).
There will be a family gathering for inurnment at Kane cemetery; a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Aug. 4 at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church.
Remembrances can be made to either Helpline House (282 Knechtel Way, Bainbridge Island 98110) or Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church (P. O. Box 131, Rolling Bay, WA 98161).
Arrangements are under the direction of Kass Funeral Home.
