Citizen of the year nominee Cliff Vining dies

Published 2:06 pm Monday, February 23, 2015

by ALANA LINDEROTH

At 93 years old, nominee for the 2014 Citizen of the Year Award and Sequim honorary pioneer, Cliff Vining died on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Although Vining was born in New Mexico, before his first birthday he and his family moved to Sequim.

The town developed into his childhood home and would later be the place of his retirement.”I love Sequim … especially the weather and the beauty,” Vining told Gazette staff only a few days before his death.

Vining didn’t leave Sequim until the early 1940s when he moved to Grandview to help his father with their farm.

After a variety of careers primarily in the dairy industry, Vining farmed grapes and asparagus, but eventually sold and repaired radios and televisions at his store, Cliff’s TV.

With his wife, Bette Lou King, Vining left Grandview nearly 40 years later in 1980 to retire in Sequim.

The couple enjoyed the area and retirement together until Bette died in 2005 after 57 years of marriage.

Since Vining had returned to Sequim, he devoted much of his spare time volunteering at the Sequim Food Bank and continued to do so for 30 years.

In honor of his decades of dedication, Sequim Food Bank Executive Director Mark Ozias nominated Vining for Sequim Citizen of the Year Award. For Vining, volunteering at the food bank throughout the years has simply given him something do, he told Gazette staff, but admitted, “It’s quite an honor” to be nominated.

Only two days before the Citizen of the Year Award luncheon, Vining died, but Ozias noted “his health really declined over the weekend.”

“I could never really put my finger on why Cliff was so devoted to the food bank for so many years, but I’m sure there we’re many aspects to it.”

Vining’s nephew, Ray Vining, said his uncle “was just that kind of person … hard working with a kind heart.”