Whidbey Island woman stood for peace, charity, community

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 2, 2004

Sharon Roth Krogseng lived her beliefs. She stood up for peace. She helped house those in need. She lent support to those scarred by divorce, opened her home to neighbors, and poked fun at the politically powerful.

Many in the close-knit community of south Whidbey Island knew her as a volunteer and an activist. To her daughter, Kyla Krogseng, she was “the ultimate mom.”

Roth Krogseng, 61, died of cancer Saturday at her rural home near Clinton.

“It wasn’t a place she originally wanted to live, she felt a little isolated out here. But it’s a place that grew to be a part of her,” said Kyla Krogseng, 27. “She became a strong person in the community, and let the community envelop her as well.”

Her adopted home was far from her native New Jersey, where she earned a degree in psychology from Rutgers University. In 1968, a road trip in an MG sports car landed her in Alaska, where she met Pete Krogseng.

They moved to Whidbey Island in 1980. The couple later divorced but remained friends. He lives in Coupeville.

“I was so lucky they raised me here,” said Kyla Krogseng, who is studying environmental science at the University of California at Santa Cruz. “She made this place her home.”

During the Vietnam War, Sharon Roth volunteered with a Quaker peace organization in Montreal, Quebec. On Whidbey Island, she found kindred spirits in friends Sue Ellen White and Linda Morris.

“She and I did a lot of weekly peace vigils at the Bayview park-and-ride, since before the Iraq war started,” Morris said. Her friendship with Roth Krogseng dates to the 1980s and the Whidbey Nuclear Free group, which opposed nuclear testing and, in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear energy.

They had lately put in time at the Clinton ferry dock with a political parody group, Billionaires for Bush. “Sharon was an enthusiastic ‘Billionaire.’ We’d work the ferry lines on Sunday afternoons,” Morris said. In ritzy costumes, they made mock pleas for more tax cuts. “We’d tell people, ‘It’s hard for billionaires to make ends meet.’”

With the Whidbey Peace and Reconciliation Network, they held community discussions on nonviolent resistance and conscientious objection. “She had a real passion for nonviolence,” Morris said.

Sue Ellen White met Roth Krogseng when their daughters were small and taking violin lessons. Rather than labeling her friend an activist, White said she was “somebody whose life and actions exhibited what she believed in.”

“She was motivated from her heart rather than her head. She was peaceful in everything she did,” White said. “Her house was always a place for people to come, people who might need to talk.”

From 1996 to 2000, Roth Krogseng was a leader in an Oak Harbor divorce recovery group. “She took her own hard experience to help others,” White said.

Roth Krogseng was an American Red Cross disaster relief volunteer and gave time to Hearts and Hammers, which helps people maintain their homes. She was also treasurer and headed the family selection committee for Habitat for Humanity of Island County.

The nonprofit organization has provided eight homes to low-income families on the island, Habitat volunteer Randy Enberg said.

“She was a real champion of those that needed a hand up,” he said. “She always encouraged the board to give more than the standard home, to personalize the home. That kind of gets lost without people like that.”

Enberg didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Roth Krogseng. “She certainly did challenge people, and we disagreed on some things,” he said. “But that’s where her heart took her.”

“She was very compassionate and able to reach other people,” said Enberg’s wife, Barbara Enberg, Habitat’s development chairwoman on south Whidbey.

Roth Krogseng’s former sister-in-law, Karen Packer, said when her Portland, Ore., home burned down five years, “Sharon was one of the first and most persistent supporters of our family. She had a deep-set need within her to give.”

“Sharon was a quiet one,” Morris said. “But she was always a constant presence, holding to her values and beliefs. She stayed the course.”

A memorial service and potluck will be at noon Saturday at Roth Krogseng’s family home near Clinton.

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.