UPDATE Jan. 19
Daniel Sullivan via Facebook shared these announcements:
"Thus far we have 2 separate, public events happening to honor Jerry, the first is at the Chelan, Sunday Jan 27th @ 3pm-ish. The second will be Tuesday Feb 5 @ 6:30pm-ish at Christos on Alki, or as we know it: The Joint. He was a beloved fixture at both of these spots and the owners/operators of each are kindly hosting these events separately, for the community. Its pretty awesome if you ask me; there's no better spots for this, than these. We'll be ringin' those bells, the only way we know how. Load the re-post/share cannons and fire at will, help spread the word. See you all there."
Other memorials are in the works and will be posted when we get the information. You can find many tributes to Jerry Ceis on the Facebook page for his high school class, West Seattle High School Class of 1966.
Original Post Jan. 10
Jerry Ceis, well known to many people in West Seattle as a larger than life
personality and Seafair Pirate died on Wednesday, Jan. 09 at the age of 64. He was born May 4, 1948.
His brother, former Seattle Deputy Mayor, Tim Ceis, now a principal at CBE Strategic said, "I think what attracted people to him was the fact that he lived his life in a very large way. He allowed all of us to go along with him and participate in that. We were kind of able to live out some of our fantasies and the adventures we wanted to have through Jerry. There were adventures to be had and definitely adventures to be talked about. That was the great thing about him."
No funeral or memorial arrangements have yet been made but will be announced next week.
He is survived by Tim Ceis, his niece Natalie Ceis, an aunt Winnifred Savery and her children, and John Yorke his uncle.
Ceis was the son of well known West Seattle Community activist Margaret Ceis who died in May of 2012.
Ceis was someone who enjoyed his role as a Seafair Pirate, was an accomplished sailor and whose adventurous nature was highlighted on a blog called Ninjamotorhome.com, in a post called "The men who don't fit in" where they relate a story about him exchanging the flag atop the Space Needle for the Pirates flag. Also included is a video of Ceis aboard a sailboat, and his recitation of a Robert Service poem, from Ceis own recording called "Ceis Stories."
