Jack Bevan was an ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. A real-life Forrest Gump or Zelig, he always seemed to be where the action and adventures were. Often finding himself in challenges of his own making, he relished finding solutions to his predicament and always came away with a highly entertaining story about it.

Born in Seattle, Washington to British immigrant parents, he lived in Broadmoor with his parents Arthur and Violette and his brother Don.  Jack and Don spent their youth outdoors, including snowshoeing up mountains with his skis on his back and pulling a cable to lay lift lines – “I was paid to ski!”  He attended Garfield High School. It was there that some of his earliest memories included the horror of watching his friends being taken to Japanese internment camps. “They were as American as I am.”

After high school, he worked for the Forest Service delivering eggs and milk to rangers stationed in fire stations throughout Washington’s Cascade Mountains.  The rangers were on lookout for hot air balloons launched by the Japanese war effort. At 19, already relying on a decade of skiing, hiking, hunting and fishing expertise, he never got lost traversing the heavily wooded forests.

Drafted into the US Army in 1943, he was, “in the wisdom of the US Government,” sent to training camp in Texas, while the southern recruits were sent to the snowy and rainy north for basic training. He was recognized as the best plane spotter in the camp due to his abilities for shape recognition stemming from his experience as a bird hunter.

Crossing the Atlantic on the original Queen Elizabeth ocean liner (his bunk was in the emptied swimming pool), he landed in Scotland with the 3rd Army (an awaiting feast of mutton and Brussels sprouts was all his since others couldn’t or wouldn’t eat it after days at sea!) and joined General George Patton in the European Theater of World War II. While his stories of feeding his fellow soldiers wild game and fish that he acquired to augment their tasteless rations are legion and legend, his most searing memory came when he was part of the division which liberated the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. The sight of men dying as they walked toward the open gates to freedom haunted him for the rest of his life. “Make love, not war.”

After his honorable discharge in 1946, he returned to Seattle and was grateful to attend college on the GI Bill.  Beginning his studies at Seattle University, he soon transferred to the University of Washington following his brother Don, and like his father before him, received his Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from the UW.  

At the UW, he joined Tau Phi Delta fraternity where he made lifelong friends. One evening he and his brothers went to a fraternity dance and many met the young nursing students who would become their wives.   After they both graduated from the University, in 1951 he married a nurse from the evening, a dark-haired beauty named Mary Jo, who survives him.  In the early years of their marriage, Jack worked in many capacities in the forestry industry throughout his career - cruising, buying and selling timber across the forested Northwest.

After moving to Edmonds, Washington, Jack and Jo were the recipients of two lucky breaks that shaped their lives. A small inheritance allowed him to buy the land on which they built their home, by hand and with the help of friends.  A few years later, a loan from his father-in-law enabled them to buy land and tide flats on the Edmonds waterfront to start their own forest products business, for which Jo did much of the bookkeeping and tax payments. In Edmonds they raised their 4 children; Susan (Tony Daddino, dcd), Scott (Misako), Salli Leslie (Michael) and Stacey.

As a local businessman and always politically minded, Jack became involved in town government, becoming a city councilman and working with the Port Commission (earning the title The Port Curmudgeon for his insistence on fiscal prudence). He became President of the Edmonds Art Association and promoted efforts to bring hanging flower baskets to the streets of Edmonds.  To preserve and protect town parks, he set an example of park-wide clean-up days.  As precinct committee chairs, he and Jo hosted Republican precinct meetings over the years and his interest in government and politics continued as even in his last months he would meet with local politicians to offer insights and advice for the town he loved.

His final employment chapter was as a Forest Products Specialist for E.F.Hutton. Drawing on years of his varied experiences, he expertly advised companies on how to hedge their business to protect them from market fluctuations.  Thus, when Jack Bevan spoke, E.F. Hutton listened - and his circle of friends grew even wider.   

After retirement, Jack remained busy, because he “always had something to look forward to.”  He continued to hunt and fish, earning another moniker, “The Codfather,” for his relentless search for the perfect spots in the waters around the San Juan Islands where he would spend every summer at Roche Harbor fishing, crabbing, shrimping and clamming.

He was an excellent cook; when his workday ended before Jo’s, he soon devoted himself to perfecting his favorite dishes, many acquired through travel and the world geography that influenced their “Gourmet Club” dinners of cuisines where foreign culture, history and politics were the raucous topics fueled by good wine with beloved friends.

Lucky enough to know, love and inspire his 7 grandchildren - Misty Graf (Jason Lucas), Nicholas Tuttle (Sarah LaMoyne), Colin Daddino (Heartie), Gwynne Hochberg (Aaron),  Adam Daddino, Gillian Bevan, and Claire Daddino (Danny Gonzalez); his 10 great-grandchildren (Leah Stewart and Tristan Lucas, Josephine and Jacqueline Tuttle, Bevan and Barrett Daddino, Sebastian Hochberg, Ivy, Caroline and Grace Gonzalez); his nephew Tris Mahaffay (Kim), their children Liam and Aiden, and niece Melissa Eddy and her son David - his legacies of inspiration, adventure, resilience and love of friends and family will live on through them.   

The stories could go on, but the man could not. A book could be written, and maybe yet will be, about a true “Pacific Northwest Hero” who was an “Edmonds Icon.”

Carpe Diem

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the University of Washington, College of the Environment, Friday Harbor Research Labs. FHL Research Support Fund (FND-137582) which supports multiple facets of the FHL research program, including but not limited to visiting researchers, equipment and FHL research technicians. https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift/?source_typ=3&source=FND-137582