Like clockwork, a group of men of a certain age gather weekday mornings at the Oak Harbor Cafe for coffee, breakfast, bad jokes and lively discussion about local and national politics.
The ringleader of the “crew,” as he refers to them, is Al Koetje, Oak Harbor’s longtime former mayor, a retired businessman and something close to a city icon.
THE MORNING gatherings began at least 30 years prior, when the restaurant was King’s Table and the men seated around the tables were running the city.
“It was quite a group back then,” John Nelson said.
In fact, the original crew and other prominent citizens are part of a generation key in the city’s history, but are now slowly fading. Koetje, at age 86, fondly recalls friends who passed, including Ted Zylstra, Don Boyer, Ray Cusworth and Mike Milat, to name a few.
Together, with people like Wallie Funk and Ed and Barney Beeksma, they were part of a generation that was active in local business and politics and shaped the city from the 1960s into the early 1990s in one form or another.
And they were all close friends, Oak Harbor attorney Chris Skinner points out.
“It was an interesting bunch of people who were deeply involved in the community,” Koetje recalled.
ON FRIDAY, the Whidbey News Group presented Koetje with the 2016 Best of Whidbey Lifetime Achievement Award. The former mayor was honored for his leadership during those formative years in city history and his love of the community.
“Koetje’s place in Oak Harbor history is undeniable,” said Whidbey News-Times Executive Editor and Publisher Keven Graves.
“For many years, he was the face and voice advocating for Oak Harbor, which was never more apparent than during the 1991 base closure scare. For that reason, Al Koetje has more than earned the Lifetime Achievement Award.”
It is only the second Lifetime Achievement Award handed out. The first recipient, two years ago, was former Whidbey News-Times co-owner and publisher Wallie Funk.
THE KEY to Koetje’s success in politics and business in the city, he said, was his support of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any other mayor in the nation being a greater booster of a local military base than Koetje, who held the office from 1972 to 1996.
He looks back and counts among his greatest accomplishments his tireless work fostering a close relationship between the city’s civilian and military spheres, but specifically his role in getting the base removed from the closure list.
Koetje said he was at the regular morning coffee with the crew on a fateful day in 1991 when he learned from a newspaper headline that NAS Whidbey was on the Base Relocation and Closure list.
A BRAC hearing in San Fransisco was only six weeks away, so the community had limited time to respond to news that could profoundly affect the city’s economy.
ED BEEKSMA, at the time a local attorney, explained that he went to Koetje after hearing the news. Beeksma told the mayor he’d put together a plan of action if Koetje assembled a task force.
And the Save NAS Whidbey Task Force was born — and it’s still alive and kicking today.
In just 10 days, Koetje said, task force members raised $10,000 toward the effort to lobby the Pentagon on the importance of NAS Whidbey. They hired James Seely, a retired rear admiral, as a consultant and enlisted the help of lawmakers in the fight.
Mac McDowell, former Island County commissioner, was also key in the effort, Koejte said.
BEEKSMA SAID the task force members traveled to the BRAC hearing armed with a beautiful speech Koetje wrote. The problem was, he said, that a mayor from another community gave the same speech ahead of them.
The two men stayed up all night to write a new speech for Koetje to deliver before the BRAC committee the next day. They came up with a doozy.
“It was brilliant,” Beeksma remembers.
He said Koetje took out a silver dollar during the speech, noting the “in God we trust” inscription. Koetje looked at the committee members and said, “Today we trust in the base closure commission to do the right thing.”
Koetje also remembers telling the commission, “You are going to kill my town if you close the base.”
The round of base closures was big news across the country, Koetje said. He was interviewed by a “big TV station” outside the hearing.
The speech and the effort succeeded in accomplishing what seemed impossible — NAS Whidbey was the only base to be taken off the list and spared from closure.
Koetje remembers that the news came just before the Fourth of July.
“We had very good attendance at the parade that year,” he said.
KOETJE’S enthusiasm extended to the entire Oak Harbor community. He was born in Oak Harbor, though his family moved and he went to school in Mount Vernon. After serving in the Air Force he returned to the city and went to work with his brother, Hank Koetje, at an insurance and real estate business.
The brothers, along with cousin George Koetje, ran the vital and thriving operation.
To give back to the community, Koetje said he decided to run for mayor. He won and ended up staying in office for the next 24 years. With his fingerprints all over the city, he’s arguably the one person most responsible for molding the community.
“We had a good council that worked well together,” he said. “We didn’t agree on everything, but when a decision was made we moved on and moved forward.”
One of those council members was Patty Cohen, a young mother in her 20s when she was elected to the council.
Cohen remembers that she stood out in a council made up of men.
“They all looked like they were my dad’s age,” she said.
COHEN SAID Koetje initially seemed unsure about the idea of having a young woman on the council — especially after she became pregnant — but they ended up respecting and learning from each other. He learned that a young woman could be a valuable voice on the council; she learned about leadership, how local government works and how the welfare of the city should be her paramount concern as an elected official.
“He was very generous with me in those formative years,” she said. “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and he was a great teacher.”
One thing that was a constant with Koetje, she said, was his love of the city. And she kept that in mind when she followed in his footsteps and became mayor.
IN ADDITION to being a successful businessman and politician, Koetje somehow managed to find time to serve as president of the Save NAS Whidbey Task Force, the local Navy League, the Senior Center Foundation and the Association of Washington Cities. He was also the president of the Rotary Club of Oak Harbor and was recently honored for 55 years of perfect attendance.
His stature in the city, Koetje said, was buoyed by his many strong relationships. One of Koetje’s best friends was the late Ted Zylstra, a well-known Oak Harbor attorney. The two families were close and the men even owned a boat together.
“Al has a reputation for being somewhat ‘parsimonious,’ so as Ted’s appetite for larger boats grew, Al’s percentage share of the new boats continued to decline, until it reached about 10 percent,” Skinner said.
Skinner’s wife, Debbie, is Zylstra’s daughter and still calls Koetje “Uncle Al.”
SKINNER SAID that Koetje, Zylstra, Dwight Mitchell, occasionally Cusworth and “interlopers” — like Dennis Faber or Skinner — would meet at the boat, originally the “King Rat,” at 11 o’ clock Saturday mornings. The rule was that each person had to do a chore before they could settle down for a drink and a talk.
Then tragedy struck. In September of 2001, Koetje and his wife, Cherita, along with Zylstra, his friend, Mary Kearney, and Dwight and Lois Mitchell were on a Holland America cruise with other Husky football fans to watch the University of Washington play against a team in Miami.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the game was canceled and the ship headed back to Mexico, Skinner said.
IN CANCUN, the ship offered a side trip to Chichen Itza, a site that Zylstra was fond of. On Sept. 12, 2001, the Zylstras and Mitchells got onto a twin-engine plane with 18 other people to visit the ruins.
The plane was probably the only one flying in the Western Hemisphere that day, Skinner said.
The Koetjes were also supposed to go, but Cherita had a bad feeling about how the plane looked. One of the engines failed on takeoff, the pilot lost control and the plane crashed to the ground, killing all 25 people onboard.
Koetje and Cherita made the sad return trip, knowing their friends’ cabins were empty but for the luggage.
The tragedy affected Koetje in “very unique way,” Skinner said.
“The loss of those good friends was devastating to him,” Skinner said. “After returning to Oak Harbor, Al went down to the marina for Saturday after Saturday and got aboard King Rat — by himself. Hard to do any chores when there wasn’t anyone around to harangue you for missing a spot. Or failing to restock the liquor cabinet.”
AFTER THE Skinners purchased Zylstra’s interest in the King Rat, Chris and Al continued the Saturday morning rituals with several mutual friends.
Skinner eventually replaced it with the Grey Goose, and Koetje continued perfect attendance to the Saturday morning meetings until just recently.
Skinner said he learned a lot about Koetje and his commitment to the community during those mornings.
Koetje’s influence lasted long after he left office and people still turned to him for help and advice.
“He’s reliable, he’s predictable, he is very prompt,” Skinner said, “and he genuinely cares about this city and the people in it.”
