A mayoral trinity

Published 11:54 am Friday, February 22, 2008

Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson, Lynnwood Mayor Mike McKinnon and Mill Creek Mayor Terry Ryan all remember a lot of the same things about their childhood: Nuns in habits, pointer sticks, the sound of a wooden yard stick slapping a desk, ‘salt and peppers’ and — they remember each other.

Not only do the three have their top jobs in common but they all also attended the same private grade school— St. Catherine’s in Seattle.

The three agreed that was a simpler time— a time they all say they cherish still today and a time they all say has framed who they are now: Men who have faith in God and the Catholic church, who have a strong work ethic— and know how to stand in a straight line without talking.

“The nuns are up in heaven shaking their heads saying ‘how could this happen…’” Haakenson said laughing, about the reality that the three of them are now mayors.

Haakenson, the oldest of the three, graduated from the eighth grade in 1961.

Haakenson, like the other two, lived within walking distance of the preschool through eighth grade private Roman Catholic school at 8524 8th N.E. in Seattle.

Haakenson said he remembers a lot about that time and finds all the memories positive.

Haakenson remembers playing baseball and basketball, being on the Boy Scouts, being an alter boy — and he also remembers the nuns.

“The long, wooden yard stick ruler being slapped down on the desk by your hands — that got your attention,” he said, Or, there was a time, he added, a group of students decided to rebel a bit and stole a paddle from one of the nuns — he insisted he wasn’t the instigator.

“I’m probably more ornery now than I was then,” he said.

Haakenson said he remembers and knows Ryan well because he hung out with and graduated with Ryan’s older brother Tim Ryan, current South Snohomish County Judge who he is still good friends with. He said he also remembers McKinnon. Both Ryan and McKinnon were part of very large families while Haakenson was an only child.

“He was Mike Welch back then and part of the big Welch family. We didn’t hang out together because he was a grade behind me but I knew who he was and I think we played baseball together and were both alter boys,” Haakenson said.

Haakenson said he does find it unusual, to say the least, about them all being located so close together and all being mayors.

“It’s nice to have that history with them and we’ve all joked about it together,” Haakenson said. “But I don’t think it’s made a difference in how we are mayors, I still think we would cooperate in the same fashion if we didn’t know each other from before.”

Haakenson and his family are members of Holy Rosary in Edmonds. He said with all of the recent negative publicity surrounding the Catholic Church, he said, the (three mayors) have discussed how they don’t have any negative recollections like that. “We all had a great time,” he said.

McKinnon, whose last name was Welch back then, was just a year behind Haakenson, graduating the eighth grade in 1962 and was one of nine Welch children.

McKinnon as well, has only positive memories about his time at St. Catherine’s.

“I liked being the alter boy,” McKinnon said. “The nuns would teach us Latin and how to do what we were suppose to do and they’d say ‘during mass, next to the priest, the alter boys are the closest people to God’ — and I thought ‘Wow! That must be good.’”

McKinnon also cherished the first Fridays of the month when the mothers would make hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls for the students and deliver them to the classroom after mass.

“I would always bring extra nickels so I would get extra hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls,” he said.

The nuns also always knew exactly what his brothers and sisters were doing, McKinnon said.

They would always let me know that whatever it was I was doing … that my actions would affect my mother,” McKinnon said they taught him through guilt and praise, depending if it was a good or bad thing he had done.

McKinnon, like Haakenson, also said he wasn’t a trouble maker.

“My mother expected me to behave and I did,” he said.

He does, however, remember one time when he was sent to the principal’s office and got a “stern talking to.”

“One time, during lunch in eighth grade some boys were playing keep-away and a ball went through an open window, so I jumped out the window and got the ball and threw it back in and I was caught, we weren’t suppose to leave the classroom during the lunch hour.”

McKinnon remembers Haakenson as being a “star athlete.”

“He was a year ahead of me so we didn’t pal around,” he said, but we did play some sports together — he was the starter and I’d be the bench warmer.”

He also remembers the Ryan boys, who lived across the street from his grandfather’s home.

“It’s totally fun to have the three mayors at one time in the same area all come from the same grade school,” McKinnon said. “Now I have that bond with Mayor Haakenson and Mayor Ryan that we can all relate to — I really cherish that,” he said.

McKinnon and his family are long time members of St. Thomas More in Lynnwood and he said, overall, at his time at St. Catherine’s, “it was an innocent time — I only have happy memories.”

While Ryan was much younger than the other two mayors graduating from the eighth grade in 1972 — he said he knew of them both because his older brother, Judge Ryan, and Haakenson were friends and graduated together, and the Ryan family lived across the street from McKinnon’s grandfather.

As one of seven boys, Ryan said, “the nuns knew who you were when you showed up,” and he said this could have been an advantage or a disadvantage of being from a large family at St. Catherine’s.

“We were definitely well known, it was great socially, we knew a lot of people because of their brothers or sisters,” Ryan said.

Graduating in the early ’70s, Ryan was in the transition period of St. Catherine’s when they started to go from all nun teachers to lay teachers.

The difference, Ryan said, was “the nuns were definitely more strict — they ran a tight ship,” he said. There were two kinds of nuns— “They were either strict or extremely strict.”

When he was a first grader, he said he remembers the nuns wearing habits that covered virtually their whole face. “This was kind of intimidating to a first grader,” he said.

Ryan said he was known to test the nuns’ patience at times.

“And they didn’t like anyone to test their patience. There was a penalty for everything,” Ryan said such as writing on the black board, staying after school, sitting in the principal’s office.

“I was one of the captains of the crossing guard patrol, so they were a little more lenient with me,” he said.

While they were strict, he said they were also very kind and good teachers.

“They really gave me a fantastic education,” Ryan said, “A lot of who I am now is based on that education from that time.”

Sister Gladys, Ryan said, was particularly one of the kindest and best teachers he’s ever had.

“All the kids loved her, she was great,” Ryan said.

About his fellow alumni also being mayors near by — “What are the odds of that? It speaks very highly of the nuns and their commitment to teaching and to the kids,” Ryan said. “The nuns taught me if you wanted something out of life you’re going to have to work hard to get it. I don’t know if the school systems as they exist today teach that to the same degree as then.”

Ryan said there is something special about St. Catherine’s, “I think it was the nuns,” he said.

Ryan and his family are members of St. Brendan in Bothell and his four children also attend Catholic schools.

“I’m proud of the religious foundation these schools are giving our children,” Ryan said.

Along with Ryan’s older brother Judge Ryan, Former Edmonds Mayor Barb Fahey and Sen. Patty Murray, D- Shoreline are also alumni of St. Catherine’s.

Mary Griffin, development director at St. Catherine’s said a lot has changed since those folks attended school there.

For example, the school uniforms back then, or the “salt and peppers,” as the mayors referred to them, aren’t black and white any longer but burgundy, blue and tan.

Enrollment then was much higher than it is today, Griffin said. And most differently the nuns, Sisters of Providence, left in the ’70s and lay people came in to teach the children.

“There’s also been a lot of changes in the education plan,” Griffin said, “They are both good quality education plans, they just arrived at it differently.”