Gone but not forgotten: Those we lost in 2021

The passing of another year is a time to reflect on those we lost, as well as the lasting impact they left on the community.

Of those who saw obituaries in the news section of The Daily Herald, their titles ranged from artist to coach to judge to teacher to convenience store clerk.

Here’s a look back at some of Snohomish County’s most notable deaths in 2021.

Jim Adams: The Head Coach

Jim Adams took over head coaching duties for the Snohomish High School boys basketball program in 1977 after spending 10 years in the same position at Molalla High School in Oregon.

His Panthers teams made three state playoff appearances in his tenure, claimed three district championships and at least a share of four conference titles. He retired from coaching in 1994.

Adams was inducted into the Washington State Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Western Washington University Hall of Fame.

Adams died March 28 of natural causes. He was 81.

Bob Anderson: The Consummate Diplomat

Robert “Bob” Carl Anderson was Everett’s first elected “strong” mayor. He pushed for public art and helped sell Everett as the best choice for Boeing’s 747 plant.

Anderson was a military veteran with six years of service, including active duty during the Korean War with the Navy’s air service.

Anderson was first elected Nov. 5, 1968, under the new city charter, a municipality’s founding document. It changed the executive office from three commissioners to one executive to run City Hall’s daily operations. He served as mayor until resigning in October 1977 to become an executive with Olympic Bank.

Anderson died July 8 of cancer at his home in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. He was 91.

Jack Arends: The Presidential Elector

Jack Arends, a self-described grassroots activist, was a state convention delegate and precinct committee officer. He represented the 2nd Congressional District as an elector following the contentious 2020 presidential election.

Arends made headlines when he went to the state capitol in Olympia to cast his Electoral College ballots for president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris.

Arends, terminally ill with a failing heart and kidneys, was the lone elector from Snohomish County. He entered the chamber of the state Senate in a wheelchair, wearing a loose black suit and “Play Nice” beret. Instead of a ceremonial quill pen, he used a Sharpie to cast his vote.

Arends died July 18. He was 64.

Reed Baldwin: The ‘Redfellow’

Reed Baldwin of Mill Creek was known for his vibrant red hair, his musical skill and his knack for making sure other people felt included.

Baldwin died April 1 in a car crash. He was 22.

His family created a scholarship fund for Henry M. Jackson High School students who share his passions for music and robotics. In less than a month, over 500 people donated more than $55,000.

The Reed Baldwin Redfellowship — after his musical alias, “Redfellow” — will go to members of his alma mater’s band and the school’s Jack in the Bot Robotics Team.

Cliff Bailey: The Farmland Preserver

Cliff Bailey was a key figure in preserving Snohomish Valley farmland. In the 1980s, he authored the county’s original Farmland Preservation Plan.

Over the decades, Bailey served on the school board, the county council and in the Legislature, but he never ventured too far for too long from the family farm where he was raised.

In 2015, the Baileys signed a conservation easement that would help preserve the Bailey Farm for generations to come.

Bailey died May 29 on his Snohomish farm. He was 94.

Mark Brinkman: The DUI Enforcer

Officer Mark Brinkman could spot a drunken driver, even with Def Leppard music blaring in the patrol car.

He helped keep Washington roads safe and was regarded nationwide as a leader in DUI enforcement. NBC News called him “the nation’s biggest buzz-kill” for his record of drunken-driver arrests.

Brinkman dedicated his career to law enforcement after graduating from the Seattle Police Academy in 1988. Since 1996, he served with the Lynnwood Police Department, where he was guild president.

Brinkman died April 11 after collapsing at his home. He was 55.

Chuck Close: The Photorealistic Painter

Chuck Close was an internationally known painter and photographer with roots in Snohomish County. His huge portraits incorporating grids and intricate patterns to form realistic paintings earned him world renown.

Close was born in Monroe and was a graduate of both Everett High School and Everett Community College. Close had used a wheelchair since 1988, when a collapsed spinal artery left him with severe paralysis. He continued to paint and produced work that was sought after by collectors and museums worldwide. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Close the National Medal of Arts.

Close faced allegations of sexual misconduct in 2018 that resulted in the cancellation of an exhibit of his works at the National Gallery of Art. He denied accusations that he had sexually harassed women who had gone to his studio to pose for him, and he apologized for making anyone uncomfortable.

Close died Aug. 19 at a hospital in Oceanside, New York. He was 81.

Bob Cummins: The Rowers’ Advocate

Bob Cummins left a vast and immeasurable mark on the rowing scene in Snohomish County and beyond. He was an ultimate ambassador for the sport — a strong advocate who used his deep passion, tireless dedication and steady leadership to teach rowing to individuals of all ages.

The Everett native was the founding president of Lake Stevens Rowing Club, an award-winning USRowing referee and a “father figure” in the local rowing community.

He also served on USRowing’s board of directors and was a founding member of the Northwest Rowing Council.

Cummins died July 24 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 72.

Jeremy Fuerst: The Mountain-Climbing Pastor

As a pastor, Jeremy Fuerst didn’t get Sundays off. But he did get Fridays to himself.

So on Thursday nights, he’d often drive east of the Cascades to go on hikes before returning to Central Lutheran Church in Everett to give his sermons. He had served as its pastor since 2015.

Fuerst often connected stories about the wilderness to scripture in his sermons. His top peaks included Kilimanjaro, Mauna Kea in Hawaii and over a half-dozen mountains above 14,000 feet in Colorado.

On Sept. 11, emergency responders spotted Fuerst about 300 feet below two mountain summits in Colorado. It’s believed he died as the result of a fall. His body was later recovered by rescuers. He was 44.

John Garner: The Accomplished Athlete

John Garner had a remarkable knack for leadership as an athlete, Navy officer, teacher, coach, principal, city administrator and Snohomish County Council member.

His accomplishments — Edmonds School District and Everett Community College Hall of Fame athlete, Boy Scout, Rotary and YMCA board member — covered a wide swath of Snohomish County over many decades.

He holds the Everett Junior College football team record for a 99-yard interception return.

From 1970 to 1982, Garner was principal of Marysville Pilchuck High School. He went on to serve as Marysville city administrator for six years and was elected to the Snohomish County Council in 1993, where he served four years.

Garner died Feb. 21 in Bellevue. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s. He was 90.

William “Bill” Jones: The Fashion Designer

Bill Jones was known around town for his art, long beard and taking his wife to work.

He became internet famous in 2009 for creating Winkers, decorative pants that appear to “wink” from behind as the wearer walks. The original Winkers features a pair of painted eyes, carefully placed. Others in his expanding collection of backside animation include a pair of movie clapboards that open to reveal the word “action” and twin ducks that open their bills as if to say “quack.”

Fashion writer called Winkers “disturbingly awesome” and a “creative idea gone wrong.”

Jones died Nov. 26. from injuries in a car crash in Everett. He was 85. His wife, Otila, 67, died alongside him.

Eric Lucas: The Barrier-Breaking Judge

Judge Eric Lucas made history in 2004 as the first person of color to be elected to the Snohomish County Superior Court bench.

He served multiple terms before announcing his retirement last year.

During his Superior Court tenure, Lucas spent four years as presiding judge of the Juvenile Offender Drug Court. He loved mentoring children and believed that is where he made the most difference.

Outside the courthouse, the judge also dedicated his time to the children of Snohomish County.

Lucas died Sept. 11 following a brief illness. He was 67.

Jeanne Metzger: The Herald Editor

Jeanne Metzger, a Herald editor for decades, was a strong and savvy career woman at a time when it wasn’t the norm for a mother of four to work outside the home.

She became an ardent advocate of hospice care, and a philanthropist whose generosity will leave a lasting legacy.

Before her marriage to Everett native Harry Metzger in 1957, she was the paper’s society editor. She would return to the paper in the mid-1960s after the birth of her four girls.

Her roles at The Herald included feature writer, visual arts columnist, editor of the Today’s Living section, editor of Panorama magazine, business editor, and the editor of a weekly Communities section.

Metzger died April 7 at her north Everett home. She was 89.

Robert Polk: The Activities Director

For the better part of two decades, Robert Polk was a steady, gracious and invaluable leader in both the Everett School District and the secondary school athletics scene in Snohomish County and beyond.

Polk spent the past 17 years managing a wide variety of responsibilities as Everett Public Schools’ director of activities and athletics. In that role, he oversaw the athletic programs of the district’s three high schools — Cascade, Everett and Jackson — and five middle schools.

He also juggled a number of other duties outside of that job, including regional athletic leadership positions and basketball officiating roles.

Polk died April 11 unexpectedly. He was 54.

Idamae Schack: Angel of the Arts

Idamae Schenkeir Miles Schack cared deeply about life in Everett. It wasn’t her first home, but locals needn’t go far to see how one couple’s generosity transformed the culture here.

The Schack Art Center, the Imagine Children’s Museum, the Historic Everett Theatre and the Everett Public Library are the most visible of many organizations supported by Idamae Schack and her late husband, John Schack.

In 2009, what was once the Arts Council of Snohomish County was renamed in honor of the Everett couple who had been generous patrons. Now informally called The Schack, the center has gallery space, art classes and a state-of-the-art hot shop.

Schack died Jan. 7. She was 102.

TejPal Singh: The Beloved Worker

When people walked into the Chevron convenience store off Highway 99 and asked the man behind the counter how he was doing, he always gave the same answer.

“Good, good,” TejPal Singh, of Snohomish, would say with a smile. The man — often called Paul by customers and friends — showed up with that warm attitude seven days a week for the 21 years he worked at the gas station near Lynnwood.

Singh immigrated from India to the United States in the 1980s. A man of Sikh faith, Singh spent many hours volunteering at the Gurudwara Sikh Centre of Seattle. He could often be found cooking meals at the Bothell Gurudwara.

Singh was going about his routine opening shift duties at the station on Sept. 26 when a masked gunman walked in and shot him to death. He was 60.

Paull Shin: The Korean Lawmaker

Paull Shin was the first Korean-American member of Washington’s Legislature when he won a House seat in 1992. The Democrat was in the final year of his fourth term in the Senate when an Alzheimer’s diagnosis forced him to resign in 2014.

Born in Korea in 1935, Shin lost his family at an early age and survived as an orphan on the streets of Seoul. As a teen, he was adopted by a U.S. Army officer he met during the Korean War, and in 1954, he moved to Utah.

His family arrived in Edmonds in 1968. Through his civic involvement and political career, Shin gave voice to the causes of Korean families in the county and across the state.

Shin died peacefully April 12 in his Edmonds home. He was 85.

Ron Thorvilson: The Mighty ‘Thor’

Ron Thorvilson spent 45 years as a teacher, including the last 36 in the Lakewood School District. He was the last teacher on the staff that in 1983 opened the original Lakewood High School, a seventh-through-12th-grade campus at the time. He retired in June of 2019.

His colleagues called him Thor, a nickname that was much more than the first four letters of his last name. They say he was big and strong like a Norse god and seemingly as immortal. He was an English teacher who loved literature, trivia and crosswords.

Thorvilson died Jan. 2 of pancreatic cancer, about two months after being diagnosed. He was 68.