April 2007

Irving Kile Benson Jr.

Irving Kile Benson Jr. was born Oct. 15, 1929, in Renton and passed away in Burien on April 28, 2007.

Irving grew up in Black Diamond. He met and married Dorothy Hills in 1952, and was a Burien resident for 47 years.

He is survived by his sister Gloria Tanzini of California, two sons, Rod Benson and Doug Benson and future daughter-in-law Rita Hanley, and numerous grandchildren, nieces, nephews and many friends.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. Arrangements were entrusted to Bonney-Watson Parker Chapel.

Eugene J. Hamburger

Eugene J. Hamburger, M.D., age 87, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on May 14, 1919, and died in Des Moines on March 28, 2007. He passed away peacefully after a long illness.

Eugene is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dr. Rena Hamburger, daughter Mary and grandson Bradley Hamburger.

He was best known as a man of passions. He will be remembered for his unwavering support of Evergreen High School's football teams in the '70s and '80s. Gene and Rena saw most of the world during many years of travel.

Eugene H. Knighton

Born March 30, 1936, in Seattle; died April 5, 2007, in Hastings, Minn. Gene attended Highline and Cleveland high schools.

He is survived by son Corey (Becky) of Afton, Minn.; daughters Nicole (Adam) Warren of St. Paul, Minn., and Mary (Jim) Roberts of Federal Way; seven grandchildren; brother Gerald (Joan); sister Sally Miller and stepsister Charleen Ferguson (Mike D'Almeida), all of the Seattle area; and many other family members and friends.

Gene was a devoted father and good friend. During his leisure time, he enjoyed bowling, golfing and having a good laugh!

Haakon "Hoke" Larson
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Longtime Des Moines resident Haakon "Hoke" Larson passed away September 4, 2006.

He was 89 years old.

Hoke, his wife and two children moved from Seattle to Des Moines in 1951. Hoke retired from New England Fish Co. in 1978. He loved stream fishing in the rivers of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains as well as camping with family and friends.

Those were brant geese

The geese Yunie Kim saw and photographed were hardly Canada geese.

They are a large flock of brants, a smallish brown goose with a fairly short neck with a white ring around it. The brants have been patrolling the area on the south side of Alki Point down to Emma Schmidt Viewpoint all winter as they do every winter. They are especially happy at low tide as that is when they feed. You can see them tipping their bottoms in the air to feed in the shallows.

Rather than having just arrived, they are about to leave for the Arctic Ocean where they spend the summer.

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Students decorated bags the past 15 Earth Days

Earth Day (was last Sunday), and it was just another Earth Day, as far as the kids at Arbor Heights are concerned. They've been busy decorating bags for Safeway as usual and they are beautiful! We've been doing this for a long time at our school - longer than anybody, anywhere, actually.

Sometimes we take things for granted. Over the years our school has received a lot of attention from the media, in print and over the airwaves, because of our decorating bags for Earth Day. Some years there is no media attention, and this will be one of those years.

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Bike master plan lacking

The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan is a one-dimensional approach. It is exclusively about building segregated facilities, which are then claimed to be safer and encourage cycling.

The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan ignores the alternative of training cyclists to drive a bicycle competently with traffic and overcome their fear of traffic so they can enjoy cycling.

Competent traffic cyclists who are willing to learn how to use the rules of the road from a bicycle report excellent access and safety.

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