Lois Wright Englebright

Lois Wright Englebright, 89, died Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at Parkside Special Care residence in Sedro-Woolley. She was born Nov. 6, 1913, in Mount Vernon, the first of five children, to Ethel Tyler Wright and Leland J. Wright.

After attending kindergarten in Granite Falls and elementary school at Riverside, Lois, at the age of 16, graduated from Mount Vernon Union High School in May 1930.

Her post-secondary work experience included serving as a newspaper reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and the Mount Vernon Herald. Lois and Paul Stevens were married in Mount Vernon from 1933 to1939, where they had two sons, Larry and Lee Stevens. She began work in 1942 for the U.S. Navy in the formative years of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station working as a junior engineer and engineering office supervisor. Lois remained at NAS Whidbey Islandduntil her retirement in 1966.

In December 1957, she married E.G. (Ben) Englebright of Anacortes. The couple purchased a home on Salmon Beach Road where they lived for more than 35 years. After retiring, the Englebrights traveled around the world on a series of passenger-carrying freighters exploring both Africa and Asia. While in Kenya, Lois accompanied her husband on an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, a lifelong dream of Ben’s. Subsequent travels included Australia’s outback, New Zealand’s Cook Range, Hawaiis volcanoes, Mexico’s Copper Canyon, and a transcontinental rail passage of Russia and Siberia.

In addition to many other travels, Lois and Ben drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska, camped in that state’s Brooks Range as well as inside the Arctic Circle while touring Canada’s Northwest Territories.

During their years together, Lois climbed several major peaks in Washington, Oregon, and California, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Canada to Mexico and climbed, hiked and camped on many peaks in the North Cascades and Olympic Mountains. She was a tireless advocate for the establishment of the new North Cascades National Park and Glacier Peak Wilderness area. She campaigned vigorously for conservation and preservation causes through both the publishing of articles and testifying before legislative committees.

Lois assisted her husband for many years in teaching mountaineering classes at Skagit Valley College. She also taught camp cookery classes, wrote many articles and made countless joint presentations with her husband to a wide variety of audiences about the joy of hiking and camping in the Pacific Northwest’s mountains. Through their joint efforts utilizing photographs taken during their many travels, mountain climbing excursions, and camping trips, Lois and Ben introduced the grandeur and the serenity of the out-of-doors to a generation of students, friends, and family.

In addition, for 10 summers, the two mountaineers worked for the U.S. Forest Service, Darrington District, as summer rangers. While Ben was a back-country ranger in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, Lois served in the Kennedy Hot Springs and Image Lake areas as a ranger, fire lookout and specialist in maintaining and repairing trails and park facilities. It was during these summers that the love of the mountains, hiking and camping was instilled in their grandchildren.

Locally, Lois was a member of the Anacortes First Baptist Church. She was also a member of the Skagit Alpine Club and the Everett Chapter of the Seattle-based Mountaineers. She actively supported Nature Conservancy and the Skagit Land Trust. Her other interests included caring for her home on Salmon Beach Road overlooking Hope Island and North Whidbey Island, gardening, reading, music, and entertaining family and friends — several from around the world. When asked about her greatest achievement, however, she responded to friends several years ago that it was raising two sons who both became teachers and rose in their professions to become college presidents.

Her husband, Ben, a sister, Wilma Shea and a brother, George Wright, preceded Lois in death. Lois is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, Larry and Alba Stevens, Anacortes, Lee and Louise Stevens, Colville; grandchildren, Susan Stevens, Solana Beach, Calif., Greg Stevens, Cardiff, Calif., Larry (Skip) Stevens, Danville, Calif., Kevin Stevens, Mesa, Ariz., Lee R. Stevens, Lakewood, Colo, Lisa Brandt, Minneapolis, Minn., Penny Johnson, Rathdrum, Idaho, Marc Stevens, Eugene, Ore., Allan Englebright, Jr. and Elizabeth Englebright, California, Angela Duby, Irvine, Calif., Pamela Parkinson, Torrance, Calif., Susan Platt, Park City, Utah, and Cheryl Spivey, Santa Rosa, Calif.; 15 great-grandchildren; two sisters, Lela Castle of Philadelphia, Penn., and Margaret Wilkison of Vancouver and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Skagit Land Trust, care of Lois and Ben Englebright Memorial, PO Box 1017, Mount Vernon, WA 98273.

A graveside memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003, at Fernhill Cemetery, 7427 SR 20, Anacortes, with a reception following at Anacortes First Baptist Church

Arrangements are in the care of Evans Funeral Chapel, Anacortes.