HOWARD RATCLIFF

Howard Ratcliff, of Mount Vernon, died peacefully Wednesday, April 9, following a lengthy illness.

He was 87.

Mr. Ratcliff was the beloved husband of longtime La Conner resident and former Planning Commission Chair Iola Schubert Mangels.

He was born Feb. 20, 1927, in Sandpoint, Idaho, the oldest of the five children of Everett and Della (Maas) Ratcliff.

As one of author Tom Brokaw’s “greatest generation,” Mr. Ratcliff saw the worst of times, but also enjoyed the best of times. Like most of his contemporaries, he joined the military during World War II, serving in the U.S. Navy.

After the war, he returned home and worked as a telegrapher for the Northern Pacific Railroad in northern Idaho and western Montana, where he and wife Jean, who predeceased Mr. Ratcliff, raised their two sons, residing in Plains, Montana.

Mr. Ratcliff took great pride and found much joy in assisting his beloved sons in their many athletic endeavors.

He found his calling with the railroad. Mr. Ratcliff embraced the logic and loved the challenge of moving trains “on down the line.” At that he had no peer.

When Mr. Ratcliff retired in 1990, after more than four decades as a telegrapher, station agent, and train dispatcher, a fellow railroader paid him the highest tribute by saying: “Howard Ratcliff retired today, the last of the true railroaders.”

Mr. Ratcliff loved people and loved to travel. He also loved a good joke and was widely recognized as a wonderfully colorful storyteller. He was kind and caring, but never soft. He worked hard, but knew how to play. Integrity and honesty were more than words to him. He kept his promises. People trusted him. He was self-sufficient, and there was nothing he couldn’t build or repair. He never accepted “can’t.” He was a fearless and bona fide hero, having received a Carnegie Lifesaving Medal in 1965 for pulling a woman out of the way of an onrushing train.

Following retirement, Mr. Ratcliff resided the past 20 years in the Skagit Valley, remaining active in various community service organizations.

He remained a lifelong “Railroader,” enjoying the com-pany and stories of his fellow retired “rails.”

Mr. Ratcliff will be missed by them and many others.

He was preceded in death by Rosa Jean Hawkins Ratcliff, wife and mother of their two sons, Ronald and Gerald.

Ronald and his wife, Brenda, reside in Rhode Island. Gerald and his wife, Vicki, live in Coulee City.

A younger brother, Gordon, died in infancy, and sisters Margaret Marie Powell (Leonard), of Sandpoint, and Dorothy Rose (Joe), of Jerome, Idaho, passed away a few years before Mr. Ratcliff.

Other survivors include Mr. Ratcliff’s youngest sister, Marlene Joyce Ratcliff White and her husband, John, of Connell, Washington; four grandchildren, Chad and Justin, sons of Ronald; and Alexese and Jerilyn, daughters of Gerald; and three great-grandchildren, Aliaha and Shaden, children of Jerilyn and Michael Capshaw; and Samuel Ratcliff, son of Justin and Michelle Ratcliff, of Australia.

Mr. Ratcliff’s ashes will be interred in Spokane at a later date.

Memorials in Mr. Ratcliff’s name may be made to Skagit Widowed Support Services, P.O. Box 156, Mount Vernon, WA 98273.