Vashon’s heart breaks: Harris Levinson dies in hiking accident

Harris Levinson, who was widely known and beloved on Vashon for his remarkable work as a teacher, youth mentor and theater-maker, died on June 23 from injuries sustained in a fall while on a solo hike on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. He was 61 years old.

His death was confirmed by Bill Jarcho, a close friend who received permission from Harris’s family members to discuss his death.

Another close friend, Carrie McCarthy, also provided details of Levinson’s death on Caring Bridge, an online platform used by family members and friends to share information about the well-being of their loved ones.

On July 9, McCarthy first posted on the site, saying Levinson had not been heard from since he began his backpack trip on June 23, and that first responders in Inyo County, California, had begun searching for him.

In a subsequent post confirming his death on July 11, McCarthy said the Inyo County Coroner’s office had informed the family that Levinson’s death had occurred on the first day of his hike, after he fell 100 feet off a ledge on a treacherous section of terrain just two miles into his trip.

“It is clear that he died upon impact,” she wrote. “We are grateful to know he didn’t suffer.”

McCarthy said Levinson, who was an experienced hiker, was aware of the danger involved in the trip.

“Harris had been planning this trip for months and was thrilled and excited to begin,” she wrote. “Folks who connected with him in his final days report that he was joyful, eager, friendly and full of appreciation for his life and the opportunity to go on this adventure. In other words, he was Harris.”

Levinson, who moved from Seattle to Vashon in the mid-1990s, was legendary on Vashon for his generosity in sharing all the attributes described by McCarthy.

As a Vashon High School teacher from 1997-2017, he taught American studies and theater and served as an advisor to the school’s Amnesty International club, but was best known as a Spanish teacher who exuberantly taught his students to speak the language with skill.

For his work as an educator on Vashon, he was awarded the school district’s Doors of Opportunity Award in 2010. In 2017, he left Vashon High to teach in public schools in Tacoma, first at Tacoma School of the Arts, and then at Science and Math Institute (SAMI).

His students loved him.

“He saw each class as a family — one coherent unit that was fueled by friendship and trust,” wrote former student Alden Hinden-Stevenson, in a tribute published in both English and Spanish in Vashon High School’s newspaper, the Riptide, after Levinson announced he would depart Vashon High School. “Even people who weren’t the closest of friends could have a unique, shared experience in his class. In other words, it was the interactions that counted the most.”

This inclusive spirit continued in Levinson’s classroom at SAMI, where rising high school senior Samara Alanis, who lives on Vashon, reveled in Levinson’s Spanish 3 classroom — a place she described as a energized atmosphere filled with both deep trust and high expectations.

“He was passionate about making us the best and most fulfilled people we could be,” Alanis said. “I’ve never seen a teacher so engaged and physically present with their class.”

During his time at SAMI, Levinson worked with Comunidad, a Vashon organization serving Latino youth and families, to better integrate the leadership and ideas of native Spanish speakers in his classroom — an effort that Comunidad organizer Alejandra Tres praised as showing Levinson’s enthusiastic and supportive allyship of this group of students, which included her own son.

Levinson’s many other achievements on Vashon and beyond make for a long and intersecting list.

In 2009, with islanders Fred Strong and Rob Bordner, he co-founded Sharing the Stage, an organization that engaged youth musicians to perform as opening acts to Seattle headliners. Concerts in the series, performed both on Vashon and in Seattle, gave island teens the chance to meet and perform with major musical groups including Visquen, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Blue Scholars, Brothers from Another and many more. He also served on the Elders Council of Journeymen, a nonprofit organization with an array of mentorship and rites of passage experiences for boys and young men.

“I’ve heard it said that it only takes one person to change the course of a life,” said islander Anne Atwell, whose daughter, Kate, performed in Sharing the Stage. “Harris was that one person for many.”

On Vashon, Levinson was also known as a talented writer, theater artist, puppeteer, and sometimes stand-up comic, who trod the boards in productions by island companies including Zambini Brothers, Drama Dock, Vashon Repertory Theatre, 14/48 Vashon and Church of Great Rain.

His embrace of the arts also included, from 1994 to 2004, serving as co-editor of the biannual literary magazine, Crab Creek Review, which published short stories and poems. As part of that role, he hosted public readings at Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival, Elliott Bay Books, Third Place Books, Richard Hugo House, and other venues.

He made many memorable appearances on Vashon stages, last performing on the island in September 2024 in Drama Dock’s production of “The Hatmaker’s Wife,” a fairytale-like show that interwove reality and imagination in a poignant exploration about identity, family, love, loss and acceptance.

Cast member Steven Sterne recalled his delight in working with Levinson on that show — which included observing Levinson as he quietly and obsessively ran through his lines before each show, making sure his memorization of his part was perfect.

“Everyone who encountered Harris experienced his warmth and joy and desire to connect, and these qualities made him a wonderful actor and scene partner,” Sterne said. “We had a level of trust in working together that complemented the joy in making discoveries onstage in the moment.”

Levinson found time to see the world and feed his mind on study exchange trips abroad to far-flung places including Uganda and Turkey, said his longtime friend, Linda Ceriello. An avid hiker, he had also gone on a 12-day solo trek of Mt. Rainier last summer.

Also recently, he had connected with others on Vashon through the highly social sport of pickleball — a game he played with boundless energy.

Jarcho, in a phone interview, said that he and his wife Susan had seen Levinson the night before he left Vashon to journey to the John Muir Trail — and that Levinson was nervous, detailing that he would need to climb to an altitude of over 11,000 feet in a short period of time because he had not received a permit to begin the hike on a lower route. But he had been excited, as well, and determined to go, Jarcho recollected.

“When we said goodbye, Harris said, in both a joking and not-joking way, ‘If I don’t come back, you know that I’ve had a fantastic life and I have no regrets,’” Jarcho said.

The impact of that life, and the sorrow of his sudden death, are now being widely shared in conversations and social media, as friends, colleagues and Levinson’s students both grieve and celebrate Levinson — a man whose warmth, wisdom, humor, sense of discovery and wild exuberance made life better for so many on Vashon.

This is an expanded version of an article first published online on July 11. A full obituary and information about plans for a celebration of Levinson’s life will follow.