Obituary of Arthur Dolfin

Arthur “Lefty” was a husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, and founded the Kapowsin/Graham volunteer Fire Department in 1960¬–now Fire District 21. He was an inventor, teacher, chief, coach, fisherman, and a golfer. He retired as an Air Traffic Controller for the FAA in 1975 after 25 years of service. Lefty was born and raised in Chicago. In the early 1940s he played football and was recruited for a semi-professional football team when WWII broke out. He joined the U.S. Navy and was sent to the Oregon coast for duty in 1943. He fell in love with the West coast. It was during navy rifle training, he gained the nickname “Lefty”. He met Frances 'Mickey' Grant of Tillamook, Oregon and they married on January 10, 1946. After sixty-two years of marriage Mickey passed in 2007. Also preceded in death son, Dan and four surviving children; son, Mike and daughters; Carole Bartenbach, Kathy Suher and Jane Ladwig, seventeen grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. The family moved from the state of Oregon to Washington in 1957. In 1960 he built the first fire station and volunteer fire department in Kapowsin while running a small farm, raising a family, coaching little league baseball and working as an Air Traffic Controller at the Seattle Tacoma Airport. In 1963 he became the first fire chief in Kapowsin/Graham. Later he assisted with the start up of the Graham Fire Dept. His family moved to Spanaway in 1965 when he transferred to McChord Air Force Base as a civil service Air Traffic Controller. During his years at McChord he helped develop and teach an air traffic controller program at Green River Community College. After Lefty retired, he and Mickey moved to the Key Peninsula where he started the Dolfin Construction Company before handing it down to his sons. During their retirement years Lefty and Mickey were active members of the Fox Island Yacht Club and Key Peninsula Sportsmen Club where he and Mickey resided for 10 years. They also enjoyed winters in Yuma, Arizona. Along with his wife, Lefty received recognition from the State of Washington for 60 years of voting. He was a consistent supporter of Veterans of War. He will receive military honors by the national honor guards at the Tahoma National Cemetery in Covington, WA on Thursday, September 22 at 2:00PM.