Byron “By” I. Larson was a geologist, city planner, and civil engineer in the Puget Sound area. Born in Tacoma in 1921 he attended Stadium Highschool in Tacoma, and the University of Idaho where he studied geology and mining engineering. He later started his own civil engineering company in Seattle and remained in the Seattle-Tacoma area until his death in 2008.

Ralph William Thompson was born in Livingston, Montana, on October 26, 1889. (1) He graduated from the University of Washington in 1914 and attended the University of Minnesota. (2) Thompson lived in Washington state for 60 years and served as an attorney for 47 years. (2) Thompson was also a member of Sigma Chi, the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association, and the Tacoma Club. (2) Thompson married Grace M. Knowles, whose father, Samuel Crawford Knowles, was a lumberman. (3) Ralph W. Thompson died on December 16, 1961, in Tacoma.

Edward D. Geddes was born in Marysville but lived most of his life in Tacoma. (1) At his retirement, Geddes had spent 47 years at sea and was the master of 15 ships. In 1919, Geddes began his career as an apprentice seaman on the merchant marine training ship Iris. He worked as a carpenter, messman, quartermaster, boatswain’s mate, and a licensed officer. (2)

Geddes was named captain of the Weyerhaeuser owned steamship Heffron on November 25, 1938. During World War II, the Heffron and 34 other ships made up a convoy to deliver war materials to Murmansk, Russia. (2) The convoy experienced Japanese air and submarine attacks. Near Iceland the convoy was attacked by enemy torpedoes. The Heffron was hit five times by the submarine, but Captain Geddes was able to call for his men to abandon ship and only one man was lost in the sinking. As a result, Geddes was awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal. (2)

From May 1944-November 1945 Captain Geddes served as a navigator for the U.S. Navy on the USS Hermitage and on the USS Europa. (2) The USS Europa was the third largest ship in the world at the time. He retired as a lieutenant commander from the Navy Reserve. (1)

Before his retirement Geddes was a master mariner for the Weyerhaeuser Co. and American Mail Lines. He was in command of ocean cargo and passenger vessels from 1938 to 1966. Edward D. Geddes died February 26, 1969, in Tacoma, Washington at 68 years old. (1)

George Miclea Miller was born in Palos, Romania on October 5, 1889. He immigrated to the United States and lived in Ohio before relocating to Tacoma in 1923. He worked as a longshoreman and checker for 32 years. He served eight years as President of the Local 38-97 International Longshoreman's Association (ILA), five years as the President of the Washington State Maritime Trades Group, and five years as President of the ILA District Council. Miller represented the longshoreman during the Streamline Strike of 1936 and helped lead a demand for higher wages for Pacific Coast longshore workers in 1940. He died in November 1964 at the age of 75.

Arthur J. Miller was a lifelong labor and civil rights advocate, born in San Diego but primarily active in the Puget Sound region after 1989. In 1967, he became involved in the anti-war movement and was allied with the Black Panther Party in the late ’60s. He made a career as a pipefitter in shipyards across the United States, joining the Industrial Workers of the World in 1970 at the suggestion of an I.W.W. member. His contributions in distributing radical leftist literature for the Panthers, and later his own publication Bayou La Rose, made him the target of disruption efforts of local and federal authorities. Arthur Miller passed in 2021.

Joseph "Joe" Seto was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1925 to Toraichi and Kiyo Seto. In 1942, Joe and his family were forced by the US Government to report to an incarceration camp in central California. They were then transferred to the Tule Lake War Relocation Camp in northern California. As part of a wartime labor program, Joe was temporarily released from Tule Lake to harvest sugar beets in Montana. He then joined his brother Matthew in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There he worked a variety of jobs before enrolling at Augsburg College. He completed a BS degree at the University of Minnesota. He then completed a Masters and PhD in Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin. In 1957, he completed his postgraduate doctoral studies at UCLA where he studied the Influenza virus under Professor Fred Rasmussen. He became a member of the West Los Angeles United Methodist Church where he met Grace Keiko Nakano. Joe and Grace married in August 1959. They then moved to San Francisco where Joe began teaching at California State University San Francisco. The following year, Joe joined the Department of Microbiology at California State University Los Angeles. He taught, conducted grant funded research, served as Department Chair, and managed the Public Health Program. He took four sabbaticals in Germany where he conducted research at the Institute of Virology at the University of Giessen. The Seto family, including his children Susan and Steven, joined him in Germany. He continued collaborating with his colleagues in Germany after retirement, traveling there annually until the 2010s. In 1998, he retired as Professor Emeritus. Seto died in 2021 at age 96.

Art Popham was a sports announcer, talk show host, and columnist. Born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 16, 1950, Popham had a career in public relations for the Oakland Athletics before moving to Tacoma in 1976. There, Art Popham would become a sports announcer for the Tacoma Twins, Tacoma Yankees, Tacoma Tugs, and the Tacoma Tigers. He hosted the shows PM Tacoma and The Art Popham Show. He was also a business columnist for the Tacoma News Tribune. He died on July 31, 2002.

Frederick Gamble Jr. was born to parents Frederick O. Gamble and Mary L. Witzman on June 12, 1915, in Memphis, Tennessee. His family was involved in the arts, and Frederick Gamble Jr. was the third generation of professional musicians. While in grade school, Frederick Gamble Jr. and his family moved to Washington state, settling in Puyallup. After graduating high school, Gamble took care of his family’s fox farm business and his siblings due to his father’s ailing health and the death of his mother.

Following the liquidation of the family business Gamble began his journey into the arts by becoming a street singer “ballyhooing” films. He later moved from doorman to advertising man, and then theater manager until Frederick Gamble Jr. partnered with Sidney P. Dean in running the Lakewood Theater and four other theaters. Gamble served as director of the Seattle Community Concert Association. He was also active in local music circles and advocated for musicians. Gamble toured the country as a tenor. He debuted at the Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 6, 1953. (1)

Gamble moved to New York City in the 1950s, where he worked as a sales manager for Custom Shop Shirtmakers from 1954-1961, and later, he joined the Whitehouse and Hardy clothing firm, where he oversaw their training program from 1961-1965. He also worked for Damon International from 1966-1975, managing the warehouse outlet and as a sales executive for the southern branches. Frederick Gamble Jr. died on September 11, 1991. (2)

Penelope H. Loucas was born in Roundup, Montana in 1940. She received her B.A. in English and French Literary Studies, as well as an M.A. and Fulbright Scholarship in Modern Greek Poetry and French Surrealism. She was appointed Curator of Exhibitions from 1988-1990 at the Tacoma Art Museum. She specialized in multi-cultural interdisciplinary studies and exhibitions including but not limited to: Modern and Contemporary Realism in the West, American, Asian and Canadian Contemporary ceramics, as well as Native American art. Much of her curatorial work looked at and promoted artists within the Northwest region of the United States.

From 1983-1985 she opened an art gallery in her own apartment, by the name of “The Upstairs Gallery” in Helena, Montana. She later took her curatorial experience to Tacoma where she owned and directed a similar “Penelope Loucas Gallery” apartment space from 1990-2007. Penelope was a part-time professor of Languages & Literature and Academic Writing for International Students at Pacific Lutheran University from 2003-2007. She also served as an adjunct professor at University of Washington from 2000-2003, as an Education Consultant at Clover Park Technical College in 1999 and lectured at the Evergreen State College in Summer 1991. At different points in her career she held many administrative positions, locally Director of the Tacoma Arts Commission, and a Grant Writer/Director of the Enumclaw Arts Commission.

Ernest Norling was born in Pasco, WA on September 26, 1892. In 1895 his family moved to Ellensburg, Washington. Norling attended Whitman College where he majored in math and physics. After college he worked as a draftsman for the city engineer's office before moving to Chicago. He studied at the Chicago Art Institute and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then moved to Seattle, where he began teaching art at the Cornish School. While teaching, Norling wrote "Perspectives Made Easy" (1939), a book on the use of perspective in art. He was one of fifty artists in Washington to take part in the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) during the Great Depression, creating documentary paintings of the Civilian Conservation Corps at work. Norling worked as an artist for the Seattle Times and as the art director for the Boeing Aircraft Company Preliminary Design Unit. He worked as an illustrator for a number of children’s books, including the Kenneth Gilbert books Bird Dog Bargain (1947), Triple Threat Patrol (1953), and Cruise of the Dipsy Do (1954). Norling and his wife, Josephine Stearns, also worked together on a series of "Pogo" books that featured a dog inspired by their daughter's pet. The novels explored underrepresented topics in children's literature such as lumberjacking and train mechanics. Over 12 years, Norling and his wife produced 20 childrens books set in the Pacific Northwest, including Pogo's Train Ride which is part of this collection. He also created commissioned works for the University of Washington, which included a mural for the student union building, now known as the HUB, in 1949. The mural depicted individuals and events from the University of Washington's history from 1861 to 1925. Ernest Norling died in Seattle, Washington in March 1974 at the age of 81.

Theo Kissick and his wife Delilah were active members of the Hix n’ Chix square dance club of Tacoma, Washington. The Hix n’ Chix were affiliated with the Rainier Council of the Square and Folk Dance Federation of Washington. Theo and Delilah were part of the organizing committee of the 30th Annual National Square Dance Convention held in Seattle June 25-27, 1981. More than 20,000 dancers from across the US and from Australia, England, New Zealand, Sweden, Holland and Japan registered for the event.

Robert Wayne Ramsey was born on October 9, 1920, in Byron, Washington to farm owners Prentice and Della Ridout Ramsey. He participated in the National Guard and was called into service with the 161st Infantry at Camp Murray. He met his wife, Georgia Kathryn Hayner, and they married on December 24, 1940 before settling in the Olympia area. Ramsey held many jobs over the course of his life. He worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), served in World War II and the Korean War, taught floriculture at Oregon State University, served as president of Landscapers Northwest, as senior partner at Chaffee-Zumwalt & Associates design firm, a partner of Mann, Milegan, Morse & Ramsey in Seattle, and the manager of the Snake Lake Nature Center. While at the Snake Lake Nature Center, he helped to start the Junior Naturalist program.

After Ramsey retired, he continued to hold membership in many different groups and societies. Ramsey led hikes for the Boy Scouts of America and a member of the the Puget Sound Mycological Society, where he served as a board member from 1969 to 1974 and president from 1970 to 1972. He was also a member of the Tahoma Audubon Society, being a charter member from 1969 onwards, board member from 1969 to 1976, and president from 1973 to 1975 and again in 1983. He chaired the Nisqually River Basin Study from 1973 to 1974.

Robert Ramsey also was also given the title of Pierce County’s Resource Conservationist of the Year in 1972. He was also appointed to a statewide committee for non-point water pollution abatement planning from 1976 to 1981 and being a chairman for it from 1980 to 1981. He was also a member of the Pacific Northwest Key Council for scientific study, identification, and keys for northwest mushrooms from 1977 to 1997. He also served as a chairman for the McNeil Island Committee for conservation matters during its change from federal prison to state prison from 1979 to 1983. Ramsey was also an author, writing works such as “Two Steps to Destruction”, “Onsite Surface Water Management”, “Pathway Planning”, as well as preparing a hypothesis for the origin of the Mima Mounds found in Thurston County, WA from 1988 to 1992.

Reverend David T. Alger served as Executive Director of Associated Ministries for nearly thirty years from 1980 until 2009. (1) During his tenure, Reverend Alger expanded the Hilltop-based non-profit from an annual budget of $58,000 in 1980 into an organization with a budget of $3.7 million and a membership of over 200 congregations, religious groups, and interfaith partners. (2)

Reverend Alger played a vital role in the founding and growth of many agencies, including: the Pierce County AIDS Foundation, the Indochinese Culture and Service Center, the Shalom Center (focusing on Central American and Middle Eastern Peace), the South Sound Peace and Justice Center, the Pierce County Dispute Resolution Center, Faith Partners Against Family Violence, the Moments of Blessing program (services held to reclaim places where homicides have occurred), and the Hilltop Action Coalition. (1)

Reverend Alger graduated from the College of Wooster with a BA in Sociology/Religion. He then graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago with a Master’s in Social Work and received his Master’s in Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary in 1971. Reverend Alger received the Tacoma Peace Prize in 2009 and the Community Service Award from the Rotary Clubs of Pierce County in 1989.

Frederic William Keator was born in Pennsylvania in 1855. He received an undergraduate and law degree from Yale University, and later moved to Chicago to practice law and attend theology school. He was appointed as a priest in 1891, and after serving at a few different churches, he moved to Olympia, Washington in 1902 where he served as the Bishop [1].

Keator was appointed state chairman for the Washington State Library War Council by the National Library War Council. This was a campaign in which libraries raised money to fund the creation and maintenance of libraries for US soldiers, both at home and oversees during World War I. In this role, he reached out to different libraries in Washington State to encourage donations to the national fund. The Tacoma News Tribune reports a telegram from Keator in 1917 stating, “The library war fund will be a contribution from the people of the United States to the contentment, effectiveness, and future usefulness of our soldiers. It is a part of the great effort the government is making to surround our soldiers with a wholesome environment and to give them an opportunity to redeem by useful occupation of their leisure some of the losses which are necessarily entailed in military service.” [2]

He died unexpectedly on January 31, 1924. On Friday February 1, 1924, the Tacoma Daily Ledger reported his death, stating, “Bishop Keator was one of the men of whom Tacoma was proud. Devoted to his church work he also was devoted to the interests of the state in which he resided. Of the highest type of loyalty, he had always been a leader in civic enterprises and his friendly counsels had always been helpful in all movements for civic betterments” [3].

Perry Keithley was born August 7, 1906 in Castle Rock, Washington. He attended Centralia High School (Class of 1925) and Bellingham Normal School (1925-1927). After starting his career as an educator, Keithley attended summer sessions at Western Washington College of Education where he was a part of the first four year graduating class in 1933. From 1928 to 1930, he taught at Meadows School in Thurston County where he was one of two total teachers. He taught all students in grades 5-8. He then moved to Lincoln School in Gig Harbor where he served as principal and taught 7th and 8th grades from 1930 to 1931. In 1931, Keithley was hired as a teacher and superintendent of the Midland and Harvard School Districts in Pierce County. His early years working for the school district coincided with financial challenges caused by the Great Depression. During this time, Keithley served as superintendent, principal, teacher, coach, and school bus driver. He also organized summer recreational programs for students. For several years, he was the youngest superintendent in the state of Washington. He chaired the statewide legislative committee of the Washington Education Association and led an effort to consolidate the Midland, Parkland, Collins, and Central Avenue school districts into the Franklin-Pierce School District. Due to health problems, Keithley retired in 1957. He died at age 61 of pancreatic cancer in 1968. In 1960, Perry G. Keithley Junior High (later Middle School) was named in his honor.

Marguerite Neely Davy was born to Florence and Harry Neely in Spokane, Washington in 1895. She died in Tacoma in 1980 at age 85. After coming to Tacoma in 1919, she Married her husband, Alexander Davy in June of 1924 and started teaching 6th grade at the Tacoma Bryant School in 1925. She also taught in Washington’s Walla Walla County, Touchet, and Centralia school districts.

Throughout her life she was involved with music and theatre by directing student concerts. In 1939 she was made president of the local St. Cecelia musical group, an important sector of Tacoma’s cultural life at the time, who put on choir concerts and other musical events. Additionally, Marguerite was formally installed as director of Alpha Pi chapter, Beta Sigma Phi in 1946. Marguerite stayed involved with music and teaching later in life and was a member of the Retired Teachers Association and Tacoma Symphony Women.

Winnifred "Winnie" Olsen (nee Castle) was born on July 26, 1916 in Olympia, Washington. She attended and graduated from Washington State College (Washington State University) with a degree in sociology and journalism. She was involved in a number of organizations and causes including Red Cross, Girl Scouts, March of Dimes, United Good Neighbors, and many more. Winnie was also a writer and producer for a local Olympia Saturday morning radio show, “Mother Goose Radio Party”, from 1948 to 1957. Afterwards, she joined the Olympia High School PTA, City Council PTA, and the Citizens Advisory Council on Education.

She was also a member of the Olympia branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for 60 years and was its president for two years. Along with this involvement, Winnie also helped to organize the Thurston County Juvenile Protection Committee and the Olympia Panhellenic Association. She wrote for the Olympia chapters of the YWCA, League of Women Voters, and Junior Programs.

Her career with Tacoma Public Schools began in 1967 and ended with her retirement in 1984. During this time, she focused on creating material that highlighted marginalized groups in the Pacific Northwest. She compiled over 100 years of information about the history of the Tacoma Public Schools for research for her book, For the Record: A History of the Tacoma Public Schools, 1869-1984.

After her retirement in 1984, Winnifred went on to volunteer around Olympia, serving at the Timberland Library, Friends of the Library, Thurston County Historic Commission, Washington State School Retirees Association, and others. In 1997, the Bush Family Interpretive Park was dedicated partially due to her extensive research on the history pioneer George Bush.

Winnifred died at the age of 94 in Lacey, Washington. She was awarded the YWCA Lifetime Achievement, WSU Alumni of the Year, Olympia High School Alumni Hall of Fame, Alpha Gamma Delta Distinguished Citizen, Olympia City Council Historic Preservation Award.

Tyra Melvia Westling was an educator of the Deaf who taught in the United States, the Philippines, and China. Born in Nebraska in 1897 to Swedish immigrant parents, her family moved to Tacoma in 1901 (1,4). In 1916 she graduated from Everett High School in the Normal (teacher training) course, after transferring from Tacoma’s Stadium High School the previous year (2). Her interest in Deaf education led her to visit numerous schools on the East Coast, where she sought employment (3). In 1924 she accepted her first teaching position overseas, in the Philippines (3). By 1948, while at the Chefoo School for the Deaf, she and her students were evacuated due to unrest associated with the Chinese Communist revolution, and she subsequently taught at the Ming Sum School for the Blind in Canton (3). Later, in the United States, she taught at the Tucker Maxon Oral School for the Deaf in Portland, OR, and Tacoma Public Schools. She died in Tacoma in 1975 at the age of 78 (4).

Margaret Rawson Goheen Arneson (1904-1995) was a music educator who brought Tacoma’s Lincoln High School’s a cappella choir to national prominence. Born in Minnesota, her family had moved to Puyallup by the time she was a teenager (1). Her teaching career started in Sumner, then after her marriage to Melvin Goheen in 1928, her tenure at Lincoln High School began and continued through her retirement in 1955 (2).

At Lincoln, she focused on choral music and formed an elite a cappella choir. For alumni and adults in the community she founded the Tacoma Symphonic Choir in 1937. She accompanied the Lincoln a cappella choir to the Music Educators’ National Conference, making the trip by train in 1938. At stops along the way performances were held in person and on the radio. In Tacoma, the choir was in demand by civic organizations and churches. When Paul Robeson came to Tacoma in 1941, they were deemed of sufficient quality to accompany him (2). She was responsible for producing an annual spring operetta, and in 1941 a group of ambitious students wrote and produced an original musical, Of Men and Models (3).

She married Gus Arneson in 1955, the year of her retirement. They moved to the Philippines for his employment, and she continued her music work there. On their return in 1962, they settled in Seattle, where she died on May 10, 1995 (4).

Honor Wilhelm was born in Shiloh, Ohio in 1870. He graduated from Wittenberg College in 1894 and apprenticed in a law firm. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1897. Later that same year, he relocated to Seattle. He began writing for a weekly Presbyterian newspapers, The Daysman, and writing two serials, "Musing of Maffy Moore" and "Scenes in the Sunny South." Through local printer H.L. Pigott, Wilhelm became aware of the recently founded magazine "The Coast," which was struggling financially. Wilhelm purchased the magazine and credited its founders by saying that the two women who started it in 1900, "...deserve praise for the perseverance and pluck with which they met adverse and discouraging conditions." While editing "The Coast," Wilhelm traveled around the northwestern United States. He wrote articles, took photographs, edited manuscripts, and sold advertisements and subscriptions. He sold "The Coast" in 1911 and became an ordained minister. He served congregations in Black Diamond, Sedro Woolley, Auburn, and Seattle. He later led a church service broadcast. He died in 1957 at age 87.