Page 20 - PGM Compendium

and started raising cannery vegetables on the farm. Don spent a lot of time working on the farm
and was able to buy a few cows of his own. He was also active in high school sports and continued
his passion for baseball. His greatest find was a beautiful young lady by the name of Cathy
Coleman whose parents, Bill and Virginia, owned an ice cream store in Anacortes. Don soon
became the official taster for Cathy's mom who made all of the ice cream they sold. Don and
Cathy were married in 1964, the same year they graduated from Anacortes High School. Don
then went to Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon and graduated with an Associate of Arts
Degree in 1966.
Don and Cathy had three daughters, Dena (1964), Traci (1967), and Heidi (1969) before making
the decision to expand the partnership and move to Ferndale. They bought two small, older dairies
that had retired and bought more beef cows along with leasing industrial property to grow
vegetables on. The partnership now consisted of 700 beef cows and growing 2500 acres of cannery
vegetables and grain. In 1974 their fourth daughter, Darci, was born and in 1980 Don expanded
again, buying an alfalfa farm in Ephrata and wintering the beef herd in Eastern Washington and
summer grazing in Western Washington. Don's dad also retired that year and left Don to manage
the operations in Anacortes, Ferndale, and Ephrata. In 1982, having spent two and a half years
traveling back and forth between operations and never being home, Don sold the Eastern
Washington operation and moved back to Ferndale. In 1992 he sold the Ferndale operation and
they moved back to Anacortes to be closer to their aging parents and to take over the manufacturing
business he had started in 1982. Today Cathy still manages the manufacturing, which is done on
the farm property, and they raise 100 head of purebred Black Angus cattle, which Darci and her
husband Tom manage.

Due to an auto accident in the fall of 1992 and surgeries in 1995 that disabled him from working
for a year, Don turned his interests to what he felt the county was doing wrong. So began his
political career as he ran for and was elected Skagit County Commissioner in the fall of 2000. He
served the county for eight years and was active as a committee chairman for two national
county committees. He was also active in representing the county in Olympia and
Washington, DC. After he retired he was asked to rejoin the county as the Assessor, a position
he held for five and a half years.

Don and Cathy's daughters are all married, Dena to Kevin Klocke, Traci to Jeff McCann, Heidi to
Greg Lindsay, and Darci to Tom Toth. They have given them seven wonderful grandchildren,
Brittany (husband Adam and great grandson Ryder), Ryan (wife Hannah), Colton (wife Shannon
and great granddaughter Lily Mae), Andrew, Tarisa, and Amanda. Life as great grandparents is
wonderful!

Don's Masonic career didn't start until 2002 and he was raised in June. He was Worshipful Master
of Fidalgo Lodge No. 77 four times! He joined the Nile Shrine and was president of the Skagit
Shrine Club twice, joined the Everett Valley Scottish Rite, National Sojourners and Heroes of ‘76,
and in 2016 was an inductee into York Rite at the Grand Masters Festival.