Serious golfers pay attention to their handicaps. Die-hard skiers ignore their handicaps and keep track of the days they get up to the mountain or out behind the boat. Fred Pease was a die-hard skier who chalked up his last run Christmas Day, 2023, skiing with his daughter Elizabeth at 49º North Mountain Resort, Chewelah, WA. He was 92.

His fight with prostate cancer had slowed him some, but it couldn’t keep him out of his bindings … or his dancing shoes. He died May 27 in Spokane Valley, WA, comforted by his loving family.

Born in Tacoma, WA, on July 16, 1931, to Arthur Wayne and Fay Harrington Pease, Fred was the eldest of three brothers and a sister. He graduated from Stadium High School and attended University of Puget Sound, Washington State University, and the University of Washington where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration. Along the way he grew up tall and fit for the climate and geography of the Pacific Northwest.

Early on, he began knocking about in sailboats with his brothers Art and Buz at the family summer home on Vashon Island, developing a lifelong affinity for whatever maneuvered sharply and swiftly through the water, including fine wooden runabouts, competitive racing sloops, lasers, sailboards and water skis.

The mechanical and woodworking skills required to keep the crafts up and running served him well after he married Jane Mary Stephens in 1961, embarking on a romantic journey together, building their family and building out a series of lovely homes to accommodate their six children and a lively, fluid cadre of friends and family guests at holiday parties and special events.

Sometimes the paint was still tacky and the tile was just set in his fresh bathroom remodel, but the party began on time. Like his brother Art and sister Patricia, Fred had a natural ear for music and he welcomed the opportunity to pick the strings of his guitar or pound the piano for hours on end, playing everything from ragtime to jazz and pop hits as party guests stepped up to croon and harmonize into the wee hours of the night.

Late nights and early mornings became routine for the family during ski season when Fred and Jane packed Mary, Geoff, Sarah, Elizabeth, James, and Emily into the family wagon or van and up to the slopes at Stevens Pass to learn the Alpine skills they both had honed at an early age.

Under Fred’s guidance as a longtime coach for Special Olympics, their youngest child, Emily, was able to participate successfully on the Cascade Ridge Racers Special Olympics ski team at age 16.

Their legacy of snow and watersports was deeply ingrained in all of their children as they moved about Puget Sound from Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood to waterfront homes on Henderson Bay and Vashon Island where they could keep the boat on a buoy and sailboards on the beach.

Come winter they’d all hit the road for Mt. Spokane, Sun Valley, McCall or Sun River where they owned a vacation home that allowed them to ski at Mt. Bachelor, wind-surf with the big boys at the Columbia Gorge and flyfish on the Deschutes.

It’s said that “a bad day skiing, boating or fishing beats a good day at the office,” and Fred may have had a bumper sticker to that effect, but he kept it in the glove compartment while he commuted to Boeing for 30 years and assisted the company through its heydays in both supervisory and executive positions in finance and estimating.

He was preceded in death by his wife Jane in 2016 and is survived by his children Mary Johnson, Sarah (Evan) Pruett, Elizabeth Bruscato, Geoffrey (Suwanlee) Pease, James Pease and Emily Pease. He was blessed with 5 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, and he will be sorely missed by dozens of nieces, nephews, and others who knew him lovingly as “Uncle Fred.”

In lieu of flowers please consider remembrance donations to Special Olympics of Washington. And tip a glass to a life well-lived.

07/16/1931 — 05/27/2024