I have been coming to Priest lake as long as I can remember. My father was friends with a guy named Bob Olson, he was the son of E.C. Olson, and E.C. Olson sold lumber in Priest River, he provided a lot of lumber that built first cabins around the Lake. Bob Olson’s sister Married Lenard Luby, so this was my father’s start into Priest Lake. Here’s a funny story of my Father and Bob Olson. They snuck into one of the Bars Millie owned in Old Town. As they were enjoying a beer (under age) they her a voice come from the end of the bar, “Olson get the Hell out of my bar”! Millie knew the Olson family really well.
My mother’s uncle, Frank McWilliams build his cabin next door to the Luby’s cabin, when Frank McWilliams passed, he left his cabin to his Daughter, Marion, my mom’s cousin. She was kind enough to let our family vacation in her cabin for many years, until her passing. My mother was friends with Lois Montecucco, who married George Hill. So I got to know the Luby family, as well as the Hills. Both my Mother and Father had their separate love for Priest long before they married.
I thank both of them for the Passion I have for Priest Lake, and the passion to preserve the lake as much as we can.
Now about little old me, my career was based in Sales for GTE Directories, (Yellow Pages) till the internet broke in, specifically Google. I remember the time before Google broke into the marketplace, the big player was AOL. After several buyouts and mergers, the company finally landed as Dex, which is about the time I made my way out of there. I went to work for The Seattle Times.
As I said, I have been coming to Priest Lake since 1958, which is the year I was born. We would stay at my Mothers Cousins cabin, it was named “Lazy Bones”, it is next door to the Luby’s cabin, unfortunately, both Lazy Bones and Luby’s cabin have been sold. My Mothers Uncle, Frank McWilliams built his cabin around the same time as the Luby’s built their cabin. So as you can surmise, my family as well as myself have been on this lake a long time!
One of the positive qualities I believe I bring to the Board is my family history on the lake and the passion I bring to preserve the Lake for my children and grandchildren, and generations to come. Both my daughter and son share my passion, and as my grandchildren get older, I’m confident that they will as well.
If it wasn’t for Selkirk Conservation Alliance I believe the lake we all know and love will turn into another Lake Tahoe, were they are desperately trying to bring back parts of the lake to its natural state, as it was many years ago! I would absolutely hate to see Priest Lake follow the path they did, when we can see how it ruined so much of their wetlands, they had to form special groups to prevent this from happening again in the future! I hope we can learn from Lake Tahoe’s mistakes to prevent this from happening to Priest Lake.
I would absolutely love the opportunity to say I was involved with the preservation process of saving the water quality and protecting all the wetlands around Priest Lake!