Class Notes

John McCartney, 64, national and world news editor at the Daily Herald in Everett, on Sept. 25, 2018. 

Niki Elofson-Gilbertson, 68, of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, who worked for Employment Security and the General Assistance program and was adept at river fishing, on May 13, 2019. 

John Hatzenbiler, on April 6, 2018, in Denver. 

Bruce Craig Spencer, 67, a retired senior vice president at both Bank of America and Financial Pacific Leasing, on April 13, 2017, in Lakewood. 

Nathan Erik Knudson, 40, on Dec. 16, 2017, in Seattle. 

Leslie J. Ward, 59, a special education teacher, on April 25, 2019, in Bellingham. 

Darren Nienaber, 47, an attorney, writer and environmentalist who worked for King and Mason counties and the city of Olympia and started a non-profit, People and Otters, focused on environ-mental preservation in the Pacific Northwest, on March 18, 2019.

Clinton Dean Crumley, 47, a medical records systems analyst, on May 12, 2019, in Graham. 

Peggy M. Jones, 80, on Nov. 4, 2018, in Bellingham.

Joseph Clemens Finkbonner, 90, a fisher, merchant marine, purse seiner and a founder of the Lummi Aquaculture Project, on May 6, 2019. 

William Corbin Keep, 86, a writer, poet, traveler, house builder and fly fisher who taught English literature at Western for 30 years and was president of the Fourth Corner Fly Fishers, on March 5, 2019. 

Richard Lee Francis, 89, a professor emeritus of English who taught from 1969 to 1992 and served as chair of WWU's Art Acquisition Committee for 10 years, on May 10, 2019. 

Melvin Gordon Davidson, 81, a former physics professor and director of the WWU Computer Center, at WWU from 1967 to 2001, on May 12, 2019. 

Marie A. Christy, 98, who retired from Western in 1986, on April 3, 2019, in Mount Vernon. 

Noemi Ban, 96, a Holocaust survivor and former elementary school teacher who later in life became an out-spoken advocate and educator on the horrors of the Holcaust and the enduring power of love and tolerance, on June 7, 2019, in Bellingham. Ban and other Holocaust survivors were a pivotal force in the founding of what is now Western’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. 

Carrie Lee Schmitz, 67, an early childhood educator, on May 7, 2019, in Vancouver, Washington. 

Melissa Nichole Scott-David, 52, on March 26, 2018. 

Michael Kramer, 40, a captain for San Juan Safaris, on March 26, 2019. 

Kathy Rae Wood, 74, a member of WWU’s class of 1989 and a talented artist who worked as a program manager at WWU, for the Faculty Senate and the Science, Math and Technology Education program, on Nov. 19, 2018, in Bellingham. 

Sharon Marie Miller, 71, who worked in administrative roles in the English and Music departments as well as the Western Foundation, on May 18, 2019.