In Memoriam We honor and celebrate the lives of Bush community members who we lost this past year. 1930s Marillyn Watson ’39 Elizabeth Biesiot ’38 1940s Helen Buschmann Belvin ’44 Virginia P. Kitchell ’43 Cynthia McNaughten ’45 1950s Sally Nunan ’53 This list reflects the alumni who have passed away between May 2, 2018 and March 31, 2019. Please accept our deepest apologies if someone is inadvertently missing from this list, and contact alumni@bush.edu. If you would like to share a memory or treasured story of your friend or colleague, please do so by emailing us at alumni@bush.edu.
E. Peter Garrett, FORMER BOARD MEMBER Edward Peter Garrett, a true gentleman of the Greatest Generation, died peacefully during twilight on the winter solstice at his family’s home. He was 101. Born in Seattle on December 7, 1917, Peter grew up near Volunteer Park and attended Lakeside School. In the early 1930’s, he enrolled at The Hotchkiss School, travelling cross country during the summers by train. He earned a chemistry degree from Yale in 1939, followed by a business degree from Harvard. His passion was downhill skiing, and in 1940 he was selected as a member of the U.S. Ski Team. Peter served in the U.S. Navy at Naval Air Station Glenview in Illinois as a flight instructor during World War II, having previously learned to fly. Peter began a career in his family’s businesses, eventually assuming the leadership role of Merrill and Ring, then a third generation timber company. In 1960, he also founded Welco Lumber Company. Evolved forms of both companies are still operated by his family today. Peter was a true sportsman of the era, ardently pursuing skiing (well into his 90s), bird hunting, flying, and golf. But he is best remembered as a loving father, grandfather, great-grandfather and loyal friend to many, both near and far. Deeply involved in the Seattle community, Peter served on numerous boards. A great story teller, with a wry wit and a mischievous sparkle in his eye, his magnetic presence will be dearly missed by those he has left behind. Peter is survived by his wife, Hope Garrett; his four daughters: Hope (Richard) Stroble, Leslie Garrett, Deborah Garrett and Alden Garrett (Charlie Eriksen); his step-daughter, Hope (Garrison) Belles; his four grandchildren: Peter (Diana) Stroble, David Stroble, Porter (Rachel) Stroble, and Liliane Eriksen; his stepgrandchild, Beau Belles; and nine great-grandchildren.
Brooks G. Ragen, FORMER BOARD PRESIDENT Brooks Geer Ragen, investment banker, civic leader, historian and author, died peacefully at his home of congestive heart failure on April 15, 2018 with his wife at his side. Despite a diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis three years ago, he remained full of intellectual vitality until his last morning. He was a man of principle and purpose who enjoyed every one of his 84 years. Born in Portland, Oregon on July 6, 1933, Brooks developed a lifelong attachment to the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from Lincoln High School, he attended Yale. During his sophomore summer, he had the incomparable good fortune to meet Suzanne Munk, on a blind date. The week after their graduations in 1958, they were married in Portland. For the nearly sixty years of their devoted partnership, he delighted in saying, “The best decision of my life was to marry Susie.” The young couple moved to New York where Brooks attended NYU Business School and worked as a research analyst with Dominick & Dominick. In 1961, Brooks opened a Seattle office for Dominick and the couple relocated permanently to the Pacific Northwest. He co-founded two investment firms, Cable Howse & Ragen in 1982
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which incorporated into Ragen MacKenzie in 1987, and McAdams Wright Ragen in 1999. Brooks led the successful merger of McAdams Wright Ragen with Robert W. Baird & Co in 2014. Deeply gratified by the merger and the collegial atmosphere of the firm, Brooks continued as a Vice Chairman of Baird, working in the office until this past February, seeing clients and friends in his home until the day before his death. For more than 50 years, Brooks embraced roles of civic leadership. He served as board president of many Seattle institutions, including The Bush School. He is survived by the joy of his life, his wife Suzanne, his children Matthew Ragen (Amy), Lisa Ragen Ide (Arthur) and Cameron Ragen (Tori) and grandchildren: Jake and Josh Ragen, Maisie, Tessa, Roscoe and Nellie Ide, and Jackson, McKenna and Carly Ragen, his brother Ron Ragen (Lee), sister Janis Harrison (Bob), many wonderful nieces and nephews and his beloved dogs, Emma and Sherman.
Virginia Price Kitchell ‘43 Virginia, or “Ginny” as she was known to her friends, was born in Seattle to Virginia Wiley and Andrew Price Sr. The youngest of three children, Ginny was raised in Seattle and on Bainbridge Island where her family joined a close community of friends on Restoration Point (The Country Club of Seattle). She graduated from The Bush School in 1943 and then attended Pine Manor College for two years before graduating from Mills College in 1947. In 1949, she married Frank Kitchell, whom she met shortly after he moved to Seattle, following his graduation from law school in Boston. Ginny & “Kitch” were married at St. Mark’s Cathedral and raised four children, Sally, Wiley, Robert and James, in Seattle’s Washington Park neighborhood. In 1950, Ginny & Kitch moved to South Carolina for a year during Kitch’s naval service in the Korean War. Following the war, they returned to Seattle for the remainder of their 65 years of marriage. Ginny was a strong, elegant and modest woman, deeply committed to her family and her community. She created a fabric of closeness in the home and welcomed neighbors and new friends who never forgot her kindness. She took particular joy in the time her family spent together on Bainbridge Island - in a community where many of the families have remained neighbors over 5 generations. She was a natural athlete and a true outdoors woman, enjoying canoeing and sailing on Puget Sound and hiking in the mountains of the Northwest. She was a member of the Sunset Club and the Seattle Tennis Club and a long time parishioner at Epiphany Church. Ginny was active in numerous civic and charitable organizations throughout Seattle, including including The Bush School. Virginia died peacefully at home with her three sons and daughters-in-law, several grandchildren and her amazing caregiver, Lorena Rogness, at her side. She is predeceased by her husband, Frank, in 2015, and her daughter, Sally, in 1982. She is survived by her three sons, ten grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.
