Robert Sestrap, a farmer, inventor, and islander, died July 12, 2003, in Seattle, Wash. He was 83 years old.

Mr. Sestrap was born to Mart and Emma Sestrap on Jan. 31, 1920, in Eckville, Alberta Canada.

Mr. Sestrap was widely known for his inventions and innovations.

His early training began as a child in his father’s farm blacksmith shop. When he was 7 years old, his father died, and then his older sisters furthered his education by bringing him mechanical erector sets to experiment with. His first working machine was a steam engine, using his mother’s teakettle.

In his early teens he took over the family farm management and his innovations in farming methods began. Observing the dust storms that were stripping the topsoil, he began 5-year crop rotations that saved the soils and increased crop yields four-fold.

His method of raising and harvesting alfalfa, previously unsuccessfully done by others; and of making and using silage for cattle feed, previously not done in Alberta, had far-reaching effects on Canadian agriculture.

The news of his unique hay-harvesting methods traveled all the way to Tasmania and was discovered in use there by the Sestrap family on an Australian vacation trip.

During World War II, with no farm help available, Robert worked his farm alone, using systems of levers and joints to operate his tractor and other machinery by remote control, doing the work of four men himself.

Robert met Betsy Wax when the Wax family made a vacation trip to the Eckville community in 1946. A year later, in late 1947, they married.

Robert and Betsy settled on his grain and cattle ranch in Alberta, Canada.

After three years of commuting back and forth, caring for the Canadian ranch and helping with the Wax cherry orchards, it became obvious that the Vashon orchards needed them the most urgently.

In 1951 Robert turned the care of his ranch over to his neighboring family in Alberta and the couple moved to Vashon permanently. Coincidently, Betsy’s father, August Wax, died later that same year.

Robert left behind a Canadian life of community involvement: Secretary of Farmers Union; Board of Directors for the Eckville community cooperative businesses; helping neighbors with sick animals. (Robert, the amateur vet).

Mr. Sestrap’s move to Vashon Island gave him the opportunity to work and invent in 12 months of good weather — no more minus 40-degree winter freezes.

In 1963, he built the fruit processing and freezer plant that allowed him the chance to invent and build machinery to his heart’s content. His inventions were always logical and simple, and they worked. Over his lifetime, he produced more than 70 inventions.

Mr. Sestrap and his wife became a team — she designed products and he designed and built the special machines and methods to make them. Their first introduction was fresh apple cider, with year-round production with his special methods. The first juice- makers to blend different varieties together — the cider and mixed juice blends were freshly made every week. And they still are.

In 1981 he pioneered new methods of making preserves without refined sugar for national distribution. He also discovered a pruning method that extended the bearing life of the cherry orchards by 20 years.

In 1985, he founded and sponsored the Western Cascade Fruit Society, for the purpose of distributing authentic fruit growing information for West-of-the-Cascades fruit growing to a community dependent on Eastern Washington teachings that don’t apply in Western Washington. That organization has grown to many chapters of deeply interested hobby- scientists, who also contribute to the WSU experiment station at Mt. Vernon.

Most rewarding to him was his interaction with the young people who worked with him. Many of them learned about responsibility and how to make things work from him.

When he built what is now Vashon Athletic Club, he hired welders from the Vashon High School welding class to work on the tilt-up concrete walls, getting the students certified to do the job. The class received received a 100 percent “Pass,” versus about 25 percent defects on the professional welds on the new high school building being built at that time, his family recalls.

Mrs. Sestrap was a member of Preserve Land for Agriculture Now (PLAN), an urban organization that successfully worked for Open Space in King County.

He was always curious — an “information-o-holic.”

A prolific writer, Robert wrote letters to editors, to politicians and he wrote fascinating stories and memoirs for future generations.

Survivors include his wife Betsy, children Anna Swain, August Sestrap, Kathy Sestrap, and grandchildren Erin, Hilary, and Tyler Swain, Asta Sestrap, and many nieces, nephews and cousins in Canada.

Services were July 19 at the Island Funeral Service Chapel, with interment at Vashon Cemetery.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association, P.O. Box 723, Vashon, Wash. 98070.