Islanders who passed the Vashon Theatre a few weeks ago may have noticed a message of gratitude on its marquee. “Thank you, Rex Stratton,” the sign read for several days running.
After nearly 20 years on Vashon, Stratton and his wife Barbara plan on moving soon to the East Coast to live closer to their daughter and grandson. Mindful of their coming departure, theater owner Eileen Wolcott said she wanted to thank Rex publicly for his role in the 2012 fundraising effort that enabled her to buy a digital film projector — equipment essential to staying in business.
“We are going to miss him quite a bit,” she said. “He is kind and compassionate and analytical, but he is always thinking about the well-being of everybody. He is looking to expedite the best path to happiness for all sides.”
Indeed, Stratton, an attorney whose practice focuses on intellectual property law, has volunteered countless hours for causes in addition to the effort that put his name up in lights, including helping to bring Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union to the island and serving as a volunteer and commissioner for Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR), among a multitude of other activities.
Earlier this month, during a long conversation at his west side home, Stratton, who will turn 71 next month, talked about his civic roles, while a common theme ran through them.
“Just being a member of a committee is not fulfilling. It is the energy you put into it,” he said. “Being on a committee is of no value unless you put your shoulder to the wheel and work.”
In 1997, the Strattons were living in Seattle’s Madison Park neighborhood, but traded in urban life for Vashon in part so that Barbara could have llamas. In 1998, they bought two of the animals and 8 acres on Robinwood Road, where they built their home and the llamas still graze in the pasture.
In 2004, tired of the commute, Stratton began practicing law on Vashon and became more involved with island life. In 2009, he said, that involvement increased when he began talking with fellow islanders Tag Gornall and Bob Powell about how to encourage business growth on Vashon. That effort became Island GreenTech, and for several years, members met at the round table at the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie each week, listening to guest speakers and entertaining a variety of ideas.
“A lot of what we talked about would never come to pass,” Stratton said. “And then one fine day Eileen (Wolcott) showed up. She was talking about the theater and not having enough money to buy a projector.”
“Tag said, ‘Maybe we can help you,'” Rex recalled.
Word began to spread before GreenTech was registered as a nonprofit, and Stratton said he scrambled to get the application in as the community stepped up.
“Checks were just flying in, and anonymous donors were giving big bucks,” he said. “The next thing I know we are at $85,000. I had no idea we would raise that amount of money.”
However, as a nonprofit, GreenTech could not simply hand over the tax-deductible donations to the theater, a for-profit business. The solution, which Stratton devised, is that GreenTech owns the equipment, but leases it to the theater. This arrangement allows GreenTech to use it, including on Tuesday nights, when island nonprofit organizations can show films rent-free.
“It was an amazing thing,” Wolcott said, recalling that time.
Not long before the theater effort, Island GreenTech played a central role in bringing a credit union to the island when only big banks served Vashon. In 2009, islanders Bill Moyer and Mark Graham talked to the group about how they believed the island should have a credit union to help finance home energy efficiency upgrades.
“I was poo-poohing it all,” Stratton recalled. “They really thought it was a good idea, but they had no idea what was involved.”
But then, he said, he started looking into it and thought the concept might not be so farfetched after all. In the end, he was one of the leaders of the effort and donated at least $50,000 worth of legal and financial analysis to the cause. The culmination of the group’s work was not the creation of a new credit union — which would have required $2 million in capital to be raised before the doors ever opened, Stratton said — but in bringing Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union to the island. Now in its fifth year on Vashon, the credit union has about 2,300 island members, who have deposited more than $35 million there, according to Chief Operating Officer Shannon Ellis-Brock. She noted those deposits have supported loans for several green initiatives, such as solar panels and geo-thermal and energy star-rated heat pump installations.
Rob Harmon, an environmental entrepreneur also instrumental in the credit union effort, noted that Stratton’s training as a lawyer means that he knows how to work through problems carefully and methodically.
“That is an essential skill for changing the world or changing an island,” Harmon added. “But he brings a lot more than that. He brings the willingness to just stand up and act. Lots of people act without thinking. Lots of people think without acting. Rex knows how to think, and he is utterly unafraid to act.”
That willingness to act may have played a key role in Stratton pursuing a different type of activity altogether: He became a volunteer with the fire department at age 63.
“I could see the need for volunteers was substantial,” Stratton said. “I thought I better walk my talk. I got in better shape, passed the physical and got to be a support volunteer.”
In that role, he learned to drive the department tenders and rescue vehicles and responded to fire calls and motor vehicle accidents, where, he noted, he frequently directed traffic from the middle of the road.
“Nobody would get by me,” he said, adding with laugh, “My best use in the fire service was as a traffic cone.”
Stratton went on to serve as a fire commissioner in a six-year term that ended this week; Chief Hank Lipe, however, shared a markedly different view of the value of Stratton’s service.
“His ability to communicate at the appropriate levels and always come up with ideas or solutions that were of the highest standards — it amazed me sometimes,” Lipe said. “I cannot recall any time I would ask for his opinion and he did not have quantifiable solutions and give me ideas about how to go about addressing them.”
Lipe credited Stratton with being an advocate for all members of the department and for reaching beyond Vashon and getting the department involved with county issues through the King County Fire Commissioners Association.
One of his biggest accomplishments as a commissioner, both Stratton and Lipe agree, occurred shortly after he was elected. The administration learned there had been a six-year period when eight of Vashon’s volunteer firefighters were not signed up for a retirement program, a problem that had occurred at other fire districts as well. The law would not let them buy back in to the program, and Stratton began working with the Board of Volunteer Fire Fighters and Reserve Officers to change the law. He drafted the needed legislation and gave it to Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-Maury Island), who introduced it.
It passed after two legislative sessions, thanks to Nelson’s efforts, Stratton said, and VIFR bought back the members’ pensions.
“That was huge. That was incredible,” Lipe said. “I did not think he had a prayer.”
Hearing that assessment, Stratton laughed.
“I was not sure I did either,” he said. “I said I was going to do it, and by God, I was going to get it done.”
Now, looking ahead, Stratton has new plans in mind and a timeline for the pending move.
“My goal is March 18, my grandson’s second birthday,” he said.
He and Barbara will settle in Vermont, and Gornall, who worked with Stratton in Island GreenTech and on countless other projects, said he expects Stratton will keep up his efforts after he moves.
“Do not be surprised to hear of this little town in Vermont that has expanded into new horizons. The community will be better for him being there,” he said.
As for Wolcott, who benefitted personally from the work Stratton helped shepherd for the theater, she said she is impressed with the Strattons’ decision to move at this stage of life, leaving such a rich history behind.
“To leave a place where you are beloved, that is brave. For me that is the most inspirational thing Rex has done. He is going to go out there and start over again,” she said. “That is pretty fantastic. It is a good lesson.”
