At the Sno Isle TECH Skills Center in Everett, Bill Vincent passes a large display of posted materials about job opportunities Monday, while walking to the culinary department in the school to visit with some of the students. Vincent has been involved in numerous volunteer activities, and lately he has been coordinating scholarships for students at Sno-Isle.

At the Sno Isle TECH Skills Center in Everett, Bill Vincent passes a large display of posted materials about job opportunities Monday, while walking to the culinary department in the school to visit with some of the students. Vincent has been involved in numerous volunteer activities, and lately he has been coordinating scholarships for students at Sno-Isle.

Elks honor coordinator of scholarships for Sno-Isle skills center

EVERETT — William Vincent dropped by the Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center in south Everett on Monday to visit students and the career center.

All the staff and many of the students know him. Vincent, 87, runs the Everett Elks lodge’s scholarship programs.

For more academically inclined students in local schools, the Elks offer their “Most Valuable Student” scholarships. But at Sno-Isle, which instructs students from most school districts in Snohomish County in a variety of trade skills, there’s also the Elks’ Vocational Grant program, which provides up to $1,000 for students who go on to a trade school or similar program at a community college, or even in some cases to buy equipment for a career.

During the application season, Vincent, who also has been active in the Lynnwood Kiwanis, shows up almost weekly at Sno-Isle to guide kids through the application process and give them feedback, said Theresa Hausmann, the counselor in the school’s career center.

“We need 100 more like Bill,” Hausmann said, while Vincent was chatting with students in the culinary program. The students were having a “skills day,” practicing techniques to make a perfect velouté sauce.

“He’s really invested with the kids to get them through that process,” she said.

Old-school service organizations like the Elks are pretty much synonymous for charitable work in their communities.

For those people to go beyond the proverbial call of duty, the Lynnwood Elks lodge reserves its MacArthur Award, which is named after the late General Douglas MacArthur.

Once a year the Lynnwood lodge selects one person, whether or not that person were an Elk, who, in the words of the award, “exemplifies Americanism so cherished by the late general.”

This year, the 50th the award has been given out, it went to Bill Vincent.

“Bill Vincent is an outstanding person,” said Doug Shultes, a former Exalted Ruler of the Lynnwood lodge who helped select the award winner.

“His (military) service was part of it, but after he got out of the service during the Korean War, he did so much community service with the Kiwanis, with the Elks,” Shultes said.

Vincent served in the Navy aboard the USS Eldorado from 1948-1952, and took part in the second wave of the invasion of Inchon in 1950.

After his service, he worked a variety of jobs, including as a lightkeeper on Saturna Island, B.C., and as a caddy at the Everett Golf and Country Club, before he went to work for Transamerica Title Insurance Co. He stayed with the company until his retirement in 1991.

He joined the Lynnwood Kiwanis in 1978 and the Everett Elks in 1983. He started volunteering at Sno-Isle a few years later.

“It’s one of the best kept secrets in Snohomish County, in my book,” Vincent said.

In the 1990s, he was also involved in the building of Kiwanis House, a home for teenage mothers and their children that was eventually transferred over to Volunteers of America.

He’s most proud of his work with the “Tall Elks” program, a statewide program launched in 1954 which provides free therapy for children with developmental disabilities in families with limited means.

“The most important thing, in my eye, is the education the parents get from the therapist,” Vincent said.

The program now has 15 therapists statewide making home visits to about 25 clients each, and as administrator of the program locally, Vincent has worked with the same therapist covering Snohomish County for 23 years.

“It’s more important to me than anything,” he said.

Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.