EvCC to host community for 75th anniversary celebration

EVERETT — John Olson paused as he thumbed through batches of photos taken over the past 75 years.

They date back to the early 1940s to what was then Everett Junior College, a fledgling institution of higher education housed in a former elementary school.

Olson, vice president of college advancement at what is now Everett Community College, was drawn to the image of a young man and woman walking down the steps near the entrance to the former Lincoln Elementary School building.

The black-and-white photo was vintage 1950s. She wore a plaid calf-length skirt. His high-waisted pants were neatly cuffed at the ankles. They were looking into each other’s eyes.

Olson was intrigued. He wondered whatever happened to the young students from 1954.

He flipped over the photo, hoping to learn more. There were two names on the back: Donna Wilson and Jerry Walimaki.

He passed on trying to track down someone with such a common name as Donna Wilson. He perused the Whitepages online and found a name and number for a Jerry Walimaki on Camano Island.

The woman on the other end explained to Olson that Walimaki had died.

His widow not only knew about the photo, she was in it. A copy is in a family scrapbook. Donna Wilson married Jerry Walimaki in 1955, one year after the picture was taken.

The couple had met in a dance class at Everett Junior College.

She’d grown up in a home along 12th Street and Lombard Avenue and graduated from Everett High. Without the hometown junior college, she would not have been able to afford higher education. She grew smitten with the quiet gentleman from Hoquiam. They were married for nearly 50 years before his death in 2004. He was an electrician, and they’d raised four children.

The Walimakis are a reminder that the college is more than the thousands of degrees and certificates it has awarded over the past 75 years. Its history reflects the community it serves, often the beginnings of decades-long relationships.

The college will take two hours to celebrate its 75th anniversary year with a public reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Walt Price Student Fitness Center. Anyone interested in attending can go to the college’s website at www.everettcc.edu to RSVP.

Much of the college’s history is told in a recently published book. The photo of Jerry and Donna Walimaki appears on the cover.

The author is Thomas Gaskin, who taught U.S., Pacific Northwest and Vietnam War history in his 37 years at the college. He was named EvCC’s faculty member of the year three times before retirement.

“It certainly was a labor of love,” Gaskin said. “After you work at an institution you love, it’s pretty easy to say yes.”

The book takes a chronological and thematic approach. It goes back to 1915 when a first version of Everett Junior College opened on the third floor of Everett High School. Enrollment plummeted during World War I and the college program shut down in the early 1920s.

Another version of the college opened in 1941, this time at 25th Street and Oakes Avenue, where Lincoln Elementary School had opened just two years earlier. Over time, the campus would become a curious mix of buildings with Army barracks from Paine Field trucked in for extra classroom space.

In 1941, the Everett School Board was overseeing both the college and the elementary school. Neighbors didn’t want to give up their new school. The board asked voters to decide their preference that September. The college won by a wide margin. A few days later, classes began for a freshman class of 134 students. A survey of 128 of those students found that only 15 would have been able to attend University of Washington or Washington State University if the junior college closed.

There were still hard feelings in the neighborhood.

“Animosity by the nearby community was still evident,” Gaskin wrote. “Chemistry instructor J.F. Marvin Buechel had tomatoes thrown at him as he rode his bike to school during the early months of the college’s existence.”

Again a world war broke out, jeopardizing the future of Everett’s college for a second time. Again enrollment plunged. If it fell below 100, the college would be forced to close. Nursing and officer training programs kept it above that perilous threshold.

“Not only were students off to war, but so were Everett Junior College faculty,” Gaskin wrote. “The one-man engineering faculty saw a turnover of five different instructors in the first academic year, as one after another entered military service.”

Eventually, the college would grow, and grow, and grow some more. It would move north to its current location between Broadway and Wetmore Avenue and expand many times over.

More than 2,500 students are expected to graduate from EvCC with a degree or certificate during this school year, according to EvCC’s Enrollment Services office. By contrast, the college’s inaugural graduating class in 1943 numbered 22 students who received their diplomas at a ceremony at the First Presbyterian Church.

Donna Walimaki has watched with interest as the college expanded.

“I was telling my friend the other day it’s like a little city,” she said.

More than $150 million in new construction has been added to the campus since 2008, including the college’s new student housing buildings, Mountain View Hall in 2016 and Cedar Hall, which is slated to open in September.

The book also lists notable alumni — some who left the area to find fame; others who made a mark in their own back yard. The roster includes the likes of internationally known artist Chuck Close, fantasy novelist David Eddings and journalist and author William Prochnau. Closer to home were former Everett Police Chief Kathy Atwood, businessman and philanthropist Dwayne Lane, and Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson.

The college will recognize a dozen more alumni at Wednesday’s reception. Their names will be added to the distinguished alumni list. They are broadcaster Cynthia Andrews, golfer Jim Brady, contractor Gordon Cole, retired accountant Caryl Thorp DeJong, former Assistant Superintendent Richard (Dick) Hanson, sisters and dentists Natasha Habib and Sabrina Heppe, Boeing Co. senior manager Duard King, Emmy Award-winning video producer Paul Matthaeus, teacher Patti Safley, coach Kristina Schumacher, and retired EvCC photography instructor Lloyd Weller.

On June 16, another class of graduates will receive their diplomas.

Azrael Howell plans to be among the roughly 350 students choosing to walk in cap and gown. He will turn 40 the week he graduates.

He completed most of his classwork during the previous two years, an eventful time in his life when he served as the college’s student body president.

Howell grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Indiana before ending up in the Puget Sound area. He wanted a fresh start after 15 years in retail. He was a C-student in high school, but earned top grades in college. This year, he worked in a student coaching program at the college.

Howell embraced his college experience, even writing lyrics for a song based on the college’s slogan “Stay close, go far.”

Along the way, he said he has learned that his voice matters and that he must “lean into greatness” and encourage others to do the same.

With scholarships, he’ll attend Seattle University next fall to study health psychology. He’d love to return to EvCC someday as an instructor or counselor.

“Everett Community College has definitely encouraged me to pursue even greater dreams than I had when I started,” he said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.

Get the book

To buy a copy of a book covering the first 75 years at Everett Community College, email foundation@everettcc.edu; attend the public reception at 4 p.m. Wednesday marking EvCC’s 75th anniversary or go to Room 228 at Olympus Hall during business hours. The book was written by retired EvCC instructor Thomas Gaskin.