Earl Wallace Lester's Obituary
Earl Wallace Lester, passed away in Tacoma, Washington, on January 28, 2021, of natural causes. He was 88 years old.
The son of George Wallace and Alice Lester, Earl was born May 10, 1932 in Livermore California. He attended schools in and around Tacoma with his lifelong friend David Michael, and later served in the U.S. Navy as a photographer from 1952 to 1955 on the West Coast and Guam. He met Jeanette Barchard in the Navy and they were married in 1955. While serving, he discovered the great jazz clubs of the 1950's in San Francisco, continuing a lifelong interest in that music. He earned a degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. After moving to Petaluma, California, he taught English at Novato High School and later San Marin High School, where he headed the English department for many years until retiring after 30 years in 1993. Earl was instrumental in implementing new, innovative teaching methods, and worked hard on providing his students with a quality education. He even had a fan club of former students, many of whom contacted him later in life to emphasize the influence he had had on them. He was a lover of poetry, ballet, jazz and classical music, and his passion for these subjects touched many lives. After retirement, he enjoyed gardening, taking walks and hikes, and attending concerts and ballets. He and Jeanette rescued several dogs from local shelters, including his favorite, a Border Collie mix named Bobbi. He spent countless hours walking his dogs and often said that any time spent with them was never wasted. Earl traveled many times to Europe, and even took a sabbatical to live and study in London for several months in 1983, where he enjoyed the theatre, ballet and musical life. The creative life mattered much to him.
Earl was a hard worker and had many jobs through his life, including apple picking in Washington in his youth, working for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and doing clerical work for the Oakland Police Department in California while attending school in Berkeley. He worked part time for several years, until 2007, for Brayton Purcell LLP law firm doing clerical input. He spent may years on projects upgrading and maintaining his Petaluma house--work he found tiring but in the rewarding.
In 2013, Earl re-connected with his high school sweetheart, Pat DeRize, and moved back to Tacoma. Earl and Pat enjoyed walks in nature, the occasional evening out at a concert or performance, but most of all sitting with each other enjoying the view of the Puget Sound from their kitchen table window.
He was an intelligent, considerate man, who tried always to do his best at whatever he undertook. He shunned the spotlight, yet could fill a room with his personality, strong opinions, and dry wit. He will be greatly missed and always remembered with love.
Earl is survived by Jeanette Lester and their three children: Karen & her husband Paul, Steven & his wife Julie, and Stacy; his grandson, Weston Robinson; and his wife Pat DeRize.
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