Chas Redmond died this week.
If you’ve been active in civic life in West Seattle at any point over the past two decades, you’ve probably already heard.
If not, we want to tell you a little about why his passing is such a loss.
Chas, gone at 76, was someone who seemed to us like a strong candidate to make it to centenarianhood.
He was a prolific walker, notching miles at a time. In fact, the first of the 337 WSB stories in which he is mentioned was about the city’s plan to remove a crosswalk in his neighborhood, Gatewood. The third was about the first-ever West Seattle Walking Trails map. As part of his quest to make the peninsula more navigable for others on foot, he helped bring that map and these kiosks to life:
They were installed starting in 2009. Some are still standing. Transportation was a focus of Chas’s activism in those years. He was involved with the West Seattle Transportation Coalition from its start a decade ago and was on its board until relatively recently. He also served on neighborhood groups such as the Morgan Community Association. In the mid-2010s, he helped shepherd a historic-resources study ensuring that West Seattle would know more about its past before too much more was swept away by its future.
In 2015, Chas was one of nine candidates in the first City Council District 1 election – the first to declare, starting his run in late 2013. He didn’t make it out of the primary. He had $2,500 in campaign cash left – and donated it to two nonprofits, the West Seattle Food Bank amd Sustainable WS.
(2013 Sustainable WS holiday party)
Aside from the myriad projects in which Chas was involved with so many groups, you might have enjoyed the results of his volunteer work in another way and never realized it. He was the sound guy for countless local festivals and events, in some cases curating the music. He provided a soundtrack for West Seattle’s summers, including the Delridge Day festivals he helped produce as a key member of VIEWS (Visualize Increased Engagement in West Seattle).
This was all just part of what he did in his later years, after moving here in the early 2000s; earlier in life, Chas served in the U.S. Army and spent decades at NASA in public affairs (as noted here). His family promises a formal obituary at some point, and we trust that will run through the full details of a storied life. In a WSB interview during his City Council run, he said his strengths included “a lifetime commitment of honesty, integrity, and followthrough.” That accomplished much for West Seattle during his time here.
We’re awaiting word from his family on celebration-of-life plans.
–Tracy Record, WSB editor
| 33 COMMENTS