the lonG vIew pArtner spotlIGhts

People+Place Sponsor Perry E. Piper

The Long View Project would be impossible without the financial and creative support of our sponsor partners. During the coming year the Reader will feature brief profiles of these partners — highlighting their relationship to Longview and interest in its history.

People+Place Sponsor Evans Kelly Family

Longview boy abroad won’t forget his hometown

While I’ve finally moved to Europe full time here in Lisbon, Portugal, and by 2030 Switzerland, my long-time dream, I’ll always say I’m from Longview in Washington State.

Growing up in Longview was filled with happy memories and a safe environment. The late Bert Jepson was my godfather at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and I was best friends with his son Jake into my high school years.

Legacy Sponsor Kirkpatrick Family Care

We used to race carts down Bert’s steep driveway in the Kelso hills with Jake and his brother, Bert Jr., who first introduced me to “Sonic the Hedgehog” on the Sega Genesis, sparking a lifetime of following the latest tech and gaming trends.

I attended St. Rose School with a class of about 25, followed by Mark Morris High School and then a mix of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, and Lower Columbia College in Longview. I got an Associate’s Degree in Arts and then worked as a graphic designer, IT manager, and off and on as “paper delivery boy” for CRR until 2021, when I left to focus completely on finance.

I’m very excited to watch the Longview Centennial celebration this Summer and Fall. A drone light show is impressive and cont page 32

Kelly family among city’s great success stories

One name that’s stayed prominent throughout Longview’s hundred years is that of J.H. Kelly.

“My grandfather got itchy feet,” said Jackie Evans from her home overlooking Lake Sacajawea, “and being a plumber by trade, he came west looking for business.” In 1923 the Irishman saw a road sign for the Planned City and figured it just might be that business opportunity.

Family

of physicians a big part of Longview’s past and present

In 1949, Dr. Neal and Ethel Kirkpatrick moved with their sons Richard and John, to Longview after a brief job in Lincoln, Nebraska fell through. Neal was Cowlitz County’s first Internal Medicine specialist. Four years later, while Neal was serving in the U.S. Air Force in Alaska, Dr. Wendell and Mickey moved to Longview from Baltimore, to take over and expand the Kirkpatrick Clinic. After initially seeing patients in the top floor of the General Mortgage Building (14th and Broadway), they built an innovative office building on the Civic Center, which featured on-site lab, x-ray, and minor surgery, plus weekend hours.

Neal was very active in bringing modern cardiology care to Longview, setting up Southwest Washington’s first Coronary Care Unit and the first allbeds-monitored heart hospital ward. As Director of Medical Education at St. John’s for 30 years he scheduled various experts from Seattle and Portland to share their insights with the medical staff “Tuesday Roundtable” luncheons. He also published cont page 32

The Kellys had migrated to Canada from Ireland and like many emigrants, followed the timberline west, ending up in Prince Rupert, B.C. and then drifting south. “They were just building the St. Helens addition, and everybody needed plumbing,’ Evans said. Among the founder’s five kids was another John Henry Kelly, Jackie’s dad. “He was a scholar in overalls,” Evans recalled, “and continued to build the business.”

Jackie was born in Kelso, and lived her first 10 years there, then entered a nursing program at the University of Washington in the early 1960s, where she met her future husband, Dan. “The school was bigger than Longview, and the nursing program was tough — 800 people entered it and only 80 graduated.” Dan and Jackie lived in California for a time, then returned to Longview, where Dan bought into the Kelly business in the 1970s. “I was a young mother with a couple of kids and the people were incredibly friendly here,” she said. ‘I think this town is a well-kept secret. It’s a great size, with great community spirit.”

J.H. Kelly and his family have left a powerful legacy in Longview, (and a love of soccer brought with the family from Ireland and introduced here in the 1920s). The Irishman with itchy feet would be proud to know his company has grown beyond the region and is nationally known for industrial construction, mechanical engineering and services.

“I like Longview,” said Evans, “and this is our opportunity to celebrate it.”