Robert Graham Keever, of Mercer Island, died on Sept. 13. He was 88 years old.
Charles D. Bridges III, “Charley,” born and raised in Seattle, died on Sept. 23, while living in Palm Desert, Calif. Mr. Bridges graduated from Broadway High School in 1944 and was on the high school golf team during all four years. He then entered the V12A program in Minot, N.D., in preparation for Naval flight training. His eyesight prevented him from entering flight school, and he was transferred to the University of Minnesota Navy ROTC program. When WWII ended, he was discharged from the Navy and returned to Seattle, where he graduated from the University of Washington in 1948. After graduating, he entered the real estate business as a mortgage loan officer. This was interrupted by the Korean War, at which time he re-entered the Navy as a Supply Corps Officer in Bayonne, N.J. While in Bayonne, he married Catherine Ann Blair in 1950, whom he had met in Seattle. They were married in the First Presbyterian Church in Greenwich Village, N.Y., where Mrs. Bridges’ mother, Katherine DuPre’, had married Woolvin Patten eight years earlier.
Rolling hills are compressed in layers against the Cascade Mountains in this morning view from the South end of Mercer Island, Sept. 24.
Last week’s Mercer Island Reporter had an article about doing away with D.A.R.E. I’m not sure what your position is on this program, but I strongly urge you to continue support of D.A.R.E. by filling the D.A.R.E. officer position. The article, in particular, and the concept of doing away with D.A.R.E. in general, are flawed for several reasons.
Second Saturday Stories: “Fall Into Stories,” 11-11:30 a.m., Oct. 11, Island Books, 3014 78th Ave. S.E. Pat Peterson. Ages 3 and up. 232-6920.
To the casual observer, Mercer Island is blessed with great parks, playfields, beaches and open spaces — the Lid Fields, Luther Burbank, South and Island Crest Fields, Pioneer Park and lots more. These play as important a part as do our schools and accessibility in justifying Mercer Island’s premier position among suburban communities.
Editorial
The story in today’s issue regarding the number of Island youth who attend off-Island schools offers some concrete evidence behind what most have already guessed — that the number of students who leave Island public schools for private schools is significant and is on the rise. Island girls fill a regular school bus dispatched here each day from Forest Ridge School in Bellevue. Stories in the Reporter over the past several years have quantified declining enrollment and its effect on Island schools. Yet it seems that the number of students leaving the district has jumped recently. Superintendent Gary Plano has wisely set out to learn why by conducting a survey of families whose children attend private schools.
CAUTION: MEN WORKING! This is the theme of the 2008 annual conference put on by the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence last week. According to Nan Stoops, executive director of the coalition, and many others in the domestic violence movement, “we must dismantle sexism to end violence against women.” As the theme suggests, we cannot do that without engaging and inviting men to be allies with women in the process.
Santa Cruz has always been an enigma. Just 60 miles south of San Francisco, it has been dubbed the “northern-most outpost of Southern California.” Home to the University of California, it has proudly garnered one of America’s Top Ten Team Mascots — the Banana Slugs. Santa Cruz commands gorgeous Pacific Coast ocean views and is, surprisingly, not populated by pricey California mega-mansions or folks driving Lexus and Bentleys, but by the spiritual grandchildren of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row slackers — “Mac ’n the boys.”
There’s something to the number three. It’s symbolically transcendent (the three wise men/the Holy Trinity), embraced by Hollywood (the Musketeers/Stooges/Amigos), and sometimes it’s just oddly coincidental — such as the trio of Mercer Island High School graduates from the 1970s who are now serving as Eastside mayors.
Eloise Kent, a Mercer Island resident of 51 years, unpacks a box during her move into the newly-completed Aljoya senior living complex on Mercer Island, Thursday.
Josefina Suarez, a certified nursing assistant at Covenant Shores, is the recipient of a $1,000 scholarship from her employer. The money will help fund her education at Renton Technical College, Renton, Wash., where she is pursuing certification as a licensed nurse.
