Irrigation Festival profile: Grand Marshal Dave McInnes

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Editor’s note: this is the third profile of Sequim Irrigation Festival pioneers leading up to the 123rd festival set for May 4-13.

Dave McInnes continues a family tradition as a festival dignitary.

Both his father Doug McInnes and his mother Bonnie Robb McInnes were Grand Pioneers in the Sequim Irrigation Festival. Now Dave, is set to serve as Grand Marshal for the 2018 festival.

His family’s time in Sequim dates back to his great, great-uncle Don McInnes settling in the Dungeness area in the 1860’s.

His immediate family briefly left the Sequim area but returned when Dave began fourth grade. He went on to graduate from Sequim High in 1980 where he was very active in athletics, drama and ASB before pursuing teaching.

Dave holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University in Special Education K-12, and Elementary Education K-8. He worked three years in California before accepting a job at Sequim Intermediate School in 1989 teaching Integrated fifth grade. Dave went on to teach fifth grade at Greywolf Elementary for 14 years.

In his 16 years teaching fifth grade, his students wrote time capsule letters to themselves and he’s mailed them out once they graduated from high school.

In 2003, Dave earned his Masters in the Creative Arts in Education from Lesley University and he soon after took a job teaching sixth and seventh grade math at Sequim Middle School.

This school year, he took on duties as the school’s drama/theater teacher.

Dave has remained active in Sequim’s theater community specifically with Olympic Theatre Arts since 1999 serving in many roles. He’s been involved in more than 30 productions there.

His first production in Sequim was the 1974 operetta “The King and I.”

He’ll be helping as co-director with this year’s operetta “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.”

For more information on Irrigation Festival events, visit www.irrigationfestival.com.