Associated Press
BREMERTON — Glenn K. Jarstad, a city council member and the longest-serving mayor in Bremerton’s history, has died of cancer. He was 80.
Jarstad, who died Sunday at Harrison Hospital, was a grocery-store owner when he was elected mayor in 1964.
During his 18 years in office, he built the city’s paramedic program, increased the city’s parkland from 100 to 400 acres, and helped pass a bond issue to build the city pool, which was named for him in 1996.
"Glenn’s fingerprints are left lovingly behind in every aspect of life we enjoy today," said Austin Clark, a former city finance commissioner.
Jarstad was born in 1921 in Gorst. He graduated from South Kitsap High School and attended Washington State University on a football scholarship until a knee injury ended his playing career.
He served as a technical sergeant in the Army in World War II and afterward bought Roy and Glenn’s Food Center with his brother-in-law, Roy Etten. He quit at age 42 when he was elected as the youngest mayor in Bremerton’s history.
Last fall, he decided to re-enter politics, and won more votes than any other council candidate in contested races.
He fell in his living room Dec. 13, and tests at the hospital found a brain lesion. He was able to return home and attended his first meeting as a city councilman last Wednesday.
He is survived by his wife, June, four children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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