Richard L. Ellingsen died on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 1, 2002, due to complications from lung cancer. He was 65 years old.

He was born on Vashon Island to Alfred and Engvarda Ellingsen Dec. 23, 1936, and was the youngest of five children.

He attended Columbia Elementary on the west side of Vashon near Cove, where he grew up. He graduated from Vashon High School in 1955.

He was very involved with his Norwegian family. While in high school, he went with his father on a large fishing boat to Alaska during the summer months. Growing up on a farm and working in the strawberry fields taught him many early disciplines of life.

He married Sharon L. Holert in 1957 and had four children. He worked for “Ma Bell” telephone company in Seattle and then with Vashon Auto Freight.

Richard and Sharon divorced in 1977. He then started working for Acme Inter-City Freight in Seattle and moved to Aberdeen, Wash. He met Peggy K. Knauf, and married her July 31, 1983.

In 1997 he became employed by ABF Freight in Tacoma where he worked until his retirement in January 2001.

His mother, Engvarda Lokke Ellingsen; father, Alfred O. Ellingsen; brother, Karl Ellingson; nephew Doug Ellingsen; and grandson, Michael L. Ellingsen, all died earlier.

Survivors include his wife Peggy Ellingsen; sisters, Marie Sundberg, Bea Beal and Louella Wales; children: Sally Ellingsen, Ken Ellingsen, Curtis Ellingsen, Charlene Hallstaff, Carl Knauf, Amy Bouge and Rick Knauf, and an extensive family of nieces, nephews and in-laws.

Besides his family and friends, friends and family recall he enjoyed many activities such as camping in the Olympic Mountains, flying kites at the ocean, tinkering with his tractors and tools, and working in his large garden of vegetables, dahlias and gladiolas.

He enjoyed his farm animals: dogs, cows, pigs and chickens. He always enjoyed experiencing new things.

Friends and family say he will be missed by many and that his spirit and so many memories will live on in his loved one’s hearts.