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 SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2010 9:18 pm |
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Local News 
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Donald Egbert was devoted to faith and family Donald Egbert worked in a shipyard, as a street paver, an electrician, and as a salesman in his lifetime. But he was happiest while working as a gardener at home, even as after his 100th birthday last January.Together with his wife, Delphine, he created a rhododendron paradise at their five-acre tract between Woodinville and Maltby. “Every May was alive with color from maybe 100 rhodies all around their place,” said his daughter, Shirley Bridgman. Her father also loved growing Fortex green beans and since 2000 had donated much of his crop to the Maltby Food Bank in Snohomish. One year he grew and donated 120 pounds of fresh beans. He prayed for more, Bridgman said, and the next year he was able to donate 240 pounds of beans to the food bank. Egbert volunteered at the Maltby Food Bank for nearly a decade. He worked there until two weeks before he died on Dec. 6, 2009. He was preceded in death by his wife, Delphine Parks Egbert in 1995; his second wife, Eleanor Ross-Egbert, in 2007; two daughters, Marlene Ruth and Beverly Yvonne (Vonnie); grandson Ricky; two brothers, Harold and Lawrence; and his parents. Egbert was born during a snowstorm in Winthrop on Jan. 9, 1909, to Arthur and Dessa Egbert. He was the oldest of six children. Egbert wrote a 30-page autobiography in summer 2006. In it, he described growing up building stilts with his brothers. “We all would fearlessly step out of the attic and stroll around on the lawn six to eight feet off the ground,” he wrote. “We had to be very careful about not falling by becoming suddenly aware of the thin air at the altitude. Coming back to the window, we would sit down, get off, and climb back into the attic and come downstairs.” Egbert described his years as a hobo hopping freight trains in the early 1930s. He went from Seattle to San Francisco, Calif., where he found jobs sweeping and polishing floors at a garage in the mornings and selling newspapers in the evenings. The last time he caught a freight train was from Kellogg, Idaho, in 1933. He was going to learn how to be an electrician at Coyne Electric in Chicago, Ill. He was 24 years old. He unloaded freight cars and worked in two restaurants to pay for a year's tuition, Egbert wrote, but had a difficult time finding a job after his schooling because of his lack of experience. “I asked, ‘How do you get experience if you don't get hired?'” he wrote. “I continued to try to find a job, but there was no work to be had in those Depression days.” Egbert moved with his family to Wallace, Idaho. It wasn't long before he met his future wife, Delphine Parks. He wrote that she was “the strong, silent type” and “the sweetest.” They married in September 1939. They lived in Wallace, Idaho, and Spokane before they moved to Snohomish County on Nov. 30, 1943, with their first daughter. Together they turned a two-room shack on their property into a 10-room home. They lived there until an electrical fire destroyed the home in 1995 and a manufactured home was put in its place. Egbert was an electrician at the Ballard and Lake Washington shipyards until the end of World War II in 1945 and then was employed by a street paving company for one year. From October 1947 to November 1953, Egbert worked at the Superior Concrete Company in Ballard and learned to handle pipe and pour concrete walls, floors, streets and sidewalks. During this time, Egbert and his wife welcomed two more daughters. In February 1954, he started a 20-year career as a salesman for Puget Sound Stamp Works in Seattle. After he retired in 1974, Egbert and Delphine enjoyed traveling to Alaska, Hawaii, Quebec, Niagara Falls, Florida, and Washington, D.C. “They were such a team my grandma and grandpa,” Melody Carpita, Egbert's granddaughter, said. “It was a real love story. They were trying to hit every state.” Prayer and his Christian faith were always important to Egbert, according to his daughter. “Jesus was his passion, and he gave most of his monthly Social Security income to causes such as Bibles for China, orphans, freeing sex slaves, and getting God's word around the world,” Bridgman said. “He was a humble but powerful prayer.” During the three months before his death, he made “gospel play-dough packets” for children at the food bank, hand-kneading the dough and putting some in packets, each with a message about God's love. He also liked to read poetry and could recite several of his favorite poems from memory, Carpita said. “A couple long poems he could quote up until a few months ago,” she said. “He loved to quote poetry and scripture. Sometimes we would just sit outside and sing hymns together. That time was just precious to me.” Egbert was always a doer, she said. The family helped him plant his beans after a stroke in April 2009 limited his eyesight and mobility. “Last summer we worked together to plant the beans,” Carpita said. “We dug holes together and then pulled his wheelchair through the freshly tilled ground so he could drop the seeds.” Egbert left some advice for his family in the final pages of his autobiography. “I urge young folks to get right with the Lord early on, they will be much more satisfied with their life later on,” he wrote. “You don't have to be a missionary, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. Be more outspoken.” Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com. |
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