Published: Sunday, October 31, 2010
Giving was second nature to Snohomish woman
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Photo courtesy of Pete Kinch
Virginia Aller with her husband, Dr. Leeon Aller, who died in 2008. The longtime Snohomish couple made many missions trips to Guatemala.
Virginia Aller was devoted to her hometown of Snohomish. Yet in partnership with her doctor husband, she often left the comforts of home to bring healing to the wider world.
“She was really a wonderful, generous, loving, free spirit,” said Sandra Gerrish, of Snohomish, whose husband, Dr. Brad Gerrish, was for years the medical partner of Virginia’s husband, Dr. Leeon Aller.
Virginia Sorgenfrei Aller died Oct. 22. She was 86.
She was born June 9, 1924, to Theodore and Nina Sorgenfrei, and spent her early years in the Lake Roesiger area east of Snohomish. Daughter Lisa Larson said her mother’s family moved to Sequim when Viriginia was in junior high. “She graduated from Sequim High School,” Larson said.
Her mother, Larson said, was a cheerleader at Sequim High School when she caught the eye of Leeon Aller, who was in the military in Sequim early in World War II. “I’m not sure of the history, but there were a lot of guys stationed there guarding the coast of Washington,” Larson said. “They stayed with different families and would go see some football games. My dad would tease the cheerleaders and say, ‘Go See-Quim,’ which would just infuriate my mom.”
Despite that, their relationship blossomed into love. They were married Dec. 4, 1945, after Leeon Aller returned from duty as a military medic in the Pacific theater during World War II. Leeon Aller, a family physician, died in 2008.
Virginia Aller is survived by her daughter, Lisa Larson, and son, Leeon “Butch” Aller III. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Lawrence Sorgenfrei; and by a son, Lance.
By the time she was married, Virginia Aller had graduated from Western Washington College of Education, now Western Washington University. The couple moved to Philadelphia, where Leeon Aller completed his medical schooling.
Leeon Aller founded the Snohomish Family Medical Center in 1953 and retired in 1989. With Dr. Gerrish as his partner, he started a sabbatical program that allowed doctors to be away for a year to volunteer in the world’s poorest places. In 2003, Dr. Aller told The Herald: “My wife Virginia and I both agreed that we wanted to do things to bring peace to worlds that were so unequal from ours.”
As lifelong partners, they did just that. In 1985, Virginia and Leeon Aller founded the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation to help impoverished people in Guatemala. Already, they had traveled to Africa and other places in service to others.
“Every seven years, they took a one-year sabbatical,” said Larson, recalling that when she was 12 she and her brother spent almost a year in Ethiopia with their parents. “He worked as a doctor and she helped with more social things in the villages,” Larson said.
Her mother, she said, loved oil painting. She created powerful images of places she had visited.
Devout members of First Presbyterian Church of Snohomish, they lived their faith through Hands for Peacemaking, the Christian nonprofit foundation. They took almost 50 trips to the Mayan town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala, where a new Aller Skill Center, named in the doctor’s honor, was opened this year.
Former Everett Mayor Pete Kinch is now executive director of the foundation. Kinch recalls stories of the couple’s early trips to Guatemala, when the country was torn by civil war. “When the doctor started the clinic, one rule was that he would treat fighters from both sides in the war, but they had to leave their guns outside,” Kinch said.
Virginia Aller was instrumental in starting a Christian school in the town, he said. “I had the opportunity to be there when Virginia and Dr. Aller made their last trip to Barillas,” Kinch said. “People came from villages all over to pay their respects.”
Dr. Gerrish, now retired from the Snohomish practice he and Leeon Aller shared, was struck by Virginia Aller’s gracious hospitality. Their home, he said, was a refuge for many children in need. “They responded to kids in need over and over again. More than 60 kids had shared their home at one time or another,” Gerrish said. “That brought a certain amount of chaos. Virginia had an unflappable nature, and the ability to respond lovingly to the most troubled individuals who would cross their threshold.”
“They were certainly our role models,” said Sandra Gerrish, adding that she and her husband also left home to care for people in need. They worked on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., and were visited there by the Allers.
“Virginia was one of those friends who goes the distance,” Sandra Gerrish said. “She was positive and loving and funny. She had the capacity to reach out and meet people’s needs, whoever they were.”
One of her friend’s favorite sayings, she said, was “onward and upward.”
“To me, she was kind of like home,” Sandra Gerrish said. “She was always so glad to see you.”
A memorial service for Virginia Aller is scheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 13 at First Presbyterian Church, 1306 Lakeview Ave., in Snohomish.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
“She was really a wonderful, generous, loving, free spirit,” said Sandra Gerrish, of Snohomish, whose husband, Dr. Brad Gerrish, was for years the medical partner of Virginia’s husband, Dr. Leeon Aller.
Virginia Sorgenfrei Aller died Oct. 22. She was 86.
She was born June 9, 1924, to Theodore and Nina Sorgenfrei, and spent her early years in the Lake Roesiger area east of Snohomish. Daughter Lisa Larson said her mother’s family moved to Sequim when Viriginia was in junior high. “She graduated from Sequim High School,” Larson said.
Her mother, Larson said, was a cheerleader at Sequim High School when she caught the eye of Leeon Aller, who was in the military in Sequim early in World War II. “I’m not sure of the history, but there were a lot of guys stationed there guarding the coast of Washington,” Larson said. “They stayed with different families and would go see some football games. My dad would tease the cheerleaders and say, ‘Go See-Quim,’ which would just infuriate my mom.”
Despite that, their relationship blossomed into love. They were married Dec. 4, 1945, after Leeon Aller returned from duty as a military medic in the Pacific theater during World War II. Leeon Aller, a family physician, died in 2008.
Virginia Aller is survived by her daughter, Lisa Larson, and son, Leeon “Butch” Aller III. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Lawrence Sorgenfrei; and by a son, Lance.
By the time she was married, Virginia Aller had graduated from Western Washington College of Education, now Western Washington University. The couple moved to Philadelphia, where Leeon Aller completed his medical schooling.
Leeon Aller founded the Snohomish Family Medical Center in 1953 and retired in 1989. With Dr. Gerrish as his partner, he started a sabbatical program that allowed doctors to be away for a year to volunteer in the world’s poorest places. In 2003, Dr. Aller told The Herald: “My wife Virginia and I both agreed that we wanted to do things to bring peace to worlds that were so unequal from ours.”
As lifelong partners, they did just that. In 1985, Virginia and Leeon Aller founded the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation to help impoverished people in Guatemala. Already, they had traveled to Africa and other places in service to others.
“Every seven years, they took a one-year sabbatical,” said Larson, recalling that when she was 12 she and her brother spent almost a year in Ethiopia with their parents. “He worked as a doctor and she helped with more social things in the villages,” Larson said.
Her mother, she said, loved oil painting. She created powerful images of places she had visited.
Devout members of First Presbyterian Church of Snohomish, they lived their faith through Hands for Peacemaking, the Christian nonprofit foundation. They took almost 50 trips to the Mayan town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala, where a new Aller Skill Center, named in the doctor’s honor, was opened this year.
Former Everett Mayor Pete Kinch is now executive director of the foundation. Kinch recalls stories of the couple’s early trips to Guatemala, when the country was torn by civil war. “When the doctor started the clinic, one rule was that he would treat fighters from both sides in the war, but they had to leave their guns outside,” Kinch said.
Virginia Aller was instrumental in starting a Christian school in the town, he said. “I had the opportunity to be there when Virginia and Dr. Aller made their last trip to Barillas,” Kinch said. “People came from villages all over to pay their respects.”
Dr. Gerrish, now retired from the Snohomish practice he and Leeon Aller shared, was struck by Virginia Aller’s gracious hospitality. Their home, he said, was a refuge for many children in need. “They responded to kids in need over and over again. More than 60 kids had shared their home at one time or another,” Gerrish said. “That brought a certain amount of chaos. Virginia had an unflappable nature, and the ability to respond lovingly to the most troubled individuals who would cross their threshold.”
“They were certainly our role models,” said Sandra Gerrish, adding that she and her husband also left home to care for people in need. They worked on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., and were visited there by the Allers.
“Virginia was one of those friends who goes the distance,” Sandra Gerrish said. “She was positive and loving and funny. She had the capacity to reach out and meet people’s needs, whoever they were.”
One of her friend’s favorite sayings, she said, was “onward and upward.”
“To me, she was kind of like home,” Sandra Gerrish said. “She was always so glad to see you.”
A memorial service for Virginia Aller is scheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 13 at First Presbyterian Church, 1306 Lakeview Ave., in Snohomish.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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