Obituary of Kent Alcorn

Who was Kent Alcorn? – A RENAISSANCE MAN in the 20th Century. He was born Boyd Kent Alcorn but after he left home to attend Harvard he used his middle name. His parents, Charles and Nina and an older sister, Jonell ,have preceded him in death but he does have a younger brother, Jewels Alcorn who is still living in Pittsfield, Ma. Kent’s first wife, Louise, lives in Moab Utah as does his oldest Daughter, Meg Alcorn Bigler. His youngest daughter Josie, who runs a small progressive school..( really a dream her father had of doing years before) lives in Corvallis, Oregon. Kent was raised in the Christian Science religion but thru the years studied many faiths and finally embraced the Friends Society (Quakers) (backing up a bit….) It was while he attended Harvard (graduating with honors) that he met and married Louise, by whom he had his two daughters. The younger daughter came while Kent was finishing graduate work at Stanford University in Calif. With family needing to be supported, he left when he was promised a good paying job-selling textbooks to colleges up and down the west coast. There followed a series of job changes…including selling sonar to fishermen, C B radios to businesses that had trucks on the road. When his job of selling radio systems finally grew to selling to the Submarine Base at Banger, Kent began to feel uncomfortable selling to the military…SO HE QUIT! He became active in a Peace Group at Ground Zero and got arrested along with many, including Father Bill Bixell when they WENT OVER THE FENCE. About this time of life with a good paying job going bye bye, and a series of door-to-door type enterprises not quite doing it for the family…. His wife left him with the two girls and moved to Kapowsin. This was a difficult time for everyone. Not long after Kent was on his own he ran into an old friend at the vegetable section of a grocery store. Neither one knew the other was in the middle of a divorce. It didn’t take long to catch up on news…One thing lead to another…eventually Suzanne and Kent were married and a period of struggling to keep food on the table (nothing new to either of them) began but eventually after several changes in jobs including Allskil, Fuller Brush, Decock Green, T-Shirts, and a sunspace company, Pacific Sun,… he finally landed a firm job teaching French in the Tacoma Public School District #10…. Now , finally back to why I say he was a Renaissance man. He wore many hats: INVENTOR…building a solar dehydrator…a solar collar to make tea…also a 30 inch telescope with finder scope and he built a huge cradle for it. As a MUSICIAN, he played in jazz bands in hi school, Tacoma Concert Band, Pierce College Band, had his own woodwind quintet and accompanied his wife at the big St Patrick’s party at Honans also did hundreds of other parties with her. He did Open Mike at many places including Antique Sandwich Shop where both of his daughters were active. He was a SCIENTIST…He learned to fix TV s so that he could get $5 for black & white or $15 for a colored at Value Village. He was always studying … mathematics of all sorts…curious…. testing …showing science experiments to the grandkids with great pleasure…. he tutored my kids thru all the hard stuff in school…even college level. As a HISTORIAN, he was great at Jeopardy…European History was his major in college and he loved to tell folks about the great events we’ve gone thru…He was a LINGUIST… proficient in French, having spent some time studying the language in Paris…While teaching at Charles Wright ,he helped to put together a language lab… He knew a bit of most o f the Romance Languages and some German. In the evening he often quoted French poetry to me. This man, Kent was a SCHOLAR…always studying…loved to learn about everything…and he often asked to fill in as speaker at church when my grandfather was failing. He was really into books about NON-VIOLENT restructurings of the society…the most recent favorite book he was recommending just before he went into the hospital was. THREE CUPS OF TEA. He was a HUMANITARIAN…. Always wanting to make things better for everyone in the world. I think Dick Meyers with his Fair Trade at the Antique Sandwich Shop was one who inspired him. Kent was a TRAVELER… mostly to France. He was a well-informed, excellent tour guide. He wanted to do so many more trips but his deteriorating organs made that impossible…. THE MOST RECENT DREAM that he was working on was a Solar Power set up , which could be sent to any location that needed electricity immediately. It was designed to run a health clinic and small village such as in Haiti after the devastation there. The idea came when one of my daughters informed us of the difficulty in caring for people while they were doing mission medical relief in the Dominican Republic and the idea of making it available to anywhere in the world where people need electricity and are off the grid soon took over his passion. He had the plans almost ready to go when his health gave out. He had already set up a radio station in Moab, Utah…. totally off the grid…and had many other solar installations that have been successful. We have solar hot water at our house…yes, it works here in rainy ol’ Puget Sound. Kent had the Fire Stations interested in solar hot water…. UPS was very interested…. but there just wasn’t enough energy for him to get this done…. Someone else will need to pick up the stick and carry it on… Life is carrying on. In fact, Kent got to see his first great grand child before he left us… his daughter Meg’s son, Ben and his wife, Amanda drove up with two month old Madalynn to visit in the hospital. His other daughter Josie left her day care for a couple weeks and her son, Zed arrived in time with Josie’s cello so she could play the music he loved so. Unfortunately her other two children, Nickolas and Abbie were not able to make it up before he passed on. Meg, his consummate care-giving daughter, was able to give him the extra tender touch of massage and cool wipe downs and ice chips until he could do no more. He was surrounded with family and lots of love. From the time he was taken off of life support and just medicated for comfort was not long. The hospital released him at 1 pm from TG into the care of the Franciscan Hospice House and he passed peacefully by early hours of the following day. The previous has been a quick run down…. and there is so much more to say but I wanted to get this in before I put the obit in the newspaper. Edward Memorial has this wonderful (do they call it a blog?) setup so anyone can add anything…for as long as we want. PLEASE FEEL FREE to add your own stories and remembrances of this remarkable man, KENT ALCORN, my husband of 31 years. Even a good joke would be appropriate…. how he did love to spin a yarn. Suzanne has submitted this July 12. Call if you like …. but give me a few more days please…so much is happening right now…Don’t forget to come to the Celebration of Life for Kent … in the form of a POT LUCK PICNIC at Wright Park on Sat August 14th. Hope to hear lots of music and stories. We’ll set up at noon and go until were done. ( 5 ish? ) P.S…..It’s now a few days later and I’m somewhat calmed down…so I’ll add a few more items that didn’t make it when I was so rushed…and somewhat rattled….For instance, I have 5 children….the only one living with me when I married Kent was my baby…Marlene…in Jr High…( she’s now Marlene Stewart Warfield…with 3 children Sarah15, Sam 9 and Russell 4)….Rose Stewart Holdren….with husband Dale…daughters Lindsey 16…Karly 14….Rose was living with a cousin when Kent and I were married….She needed be near Green River college…..My son, Douglas, who lives in Massachusetts has 7 kids…Paul, a marine, Ryan…Army (now at Walter Reed Hospital )…Mark,…also in and out of combat….April, graduated high school…holding down a good job. And Joel, just out of high school and looking for work…then when my son remarried…. he had a wonderful package deal going with wife Jeannie and her two daughters, Danielle and Ronnie. Are you tired yet of going thru my kids?../ Just two more to go….Vicky Stewart lives in Portland with her partner and is retired from the publishing business…and last of all , and by no means the least, is my eldest…Linett Stewart…with 2 daughters, Nadia & Olecia…both in their 20s ….Linett is a retired flight attendant…and responsible for me being able to fly with my husband when he was selected by the Fullbright Foundation, to go to France to teach English for a year. Many stories to tell you about that…another time perhaps……Just a couple more comments for now ….I get asked “ What happened to Kent ….the last time I saw him he looked so good?”….Well, he’s had so many surgeries…I guess they finally caught up with him. Besides the major heart valve replacement…there was the hip replacement….the reconstructed ankles….Gaul bladder problems….They were on the verge of removing that when everything decided not to work together and quickly he was put on life support…after 2 weeks of that , it was time to go…He had written a Living Will and when it was evident that he would not recover, he said “ It’s time for me to go now …I’m ready” The next asked question is…how am I doing….Well, it’s never easy losing your greatest friend…one you’ve come to rely upon…but with lots of family and friends helping me through and with lots of opportunity to cry…I am feeling much better…..The Greatness of our existence overwhelms me……Death and rebirth are just part of a glorious dance. . I am happy and at peace…I’m sure Kent is too. See you at the park….or if not, perhaps some other time…I know this is in the middle of summer and people have other plans made ….much of my family can’t make it either….I have no idea if there will be 50 of us or 500……….. no matter, it will be a Celebration for me to feel good about either way…Blessings to all.