Page 22 - PGM Compendium

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.

He is also a member of Bannack Historic Lodge No. 3-7-77 and Grand Mound Historic Lodge No. 3.
When he was Junior Grand Warden in 2012, he was proud to have been a part of the formation of the
Washington Masonic Charities, serving as President of the Board of Trustees following his tenure as
Grand Master.

His journey through the Grand Lodge Elected Chairs was interesting, challenging, enlightening, exciting,
and Masonically educational, but what he will cherish most of all is the warmth and friendship that he has

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