In the spring of 1963, my tour in the 101st Airborne Division came to an end with my orders for Vietnam. Haroldine and I, plus

our four kids, came to the West Coast to see

her folks and look for a future place to

retire.

Our search brought us up Highway 101 to a spot just short of Gardiner where we had a flat tire. I had just pulled off to the side of the road and started to look for my jack when a pickup stopped and a stranger with a kind voice announced that he had a jack that could fix us up with no problem.

He hardly had time to ask me what I was doing in this part of the country when a second truck stopped and also offered to help. This man had been fishing and offered to share his catch with us.

Retires from Army

Right then I knew that this was the place for us to call home even though it would be more than 12 years before we could make the move. So in 1963, with no more than a handshake and a quick stop at the Sequim bank, we bought a piece of property on Siebert Creek and became Clallam County taxpayers.

In 1975, after 32-plus years in the United States Army, I retired, and by the spring of 1976 we were ensconced in our new home in McDonald Creek Ranch. We started living the Sequim life of leisure. We bought the boat, we did the park, we did the spit and we joined the Dungeness Schoolhouse Community Club in addition to other wonderful Sequim organizations.

This lasted a year and then the old desire to serve took over, and thus we come to the reason for writing this letter.

Civic service

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of serving as a member of the boards of a number of local organizations and as the president of Sequim Rotary, the Retired Officer Association, now MOA, and as vice president of the Dungeness Ditch Company.

For four years, Haroldine and I had the joy and the challenge of representing you in Olympia in the state House of Representatives. Later, for 12 years I had the pleasure of representing the west end of the county as your elected port commissioner.

Because of the diverse nature of the citizenry of Clallam County, our thoughts and actions have not always meshed, but over the years each side can claim to have won a few and most will admit that they lost a few as well. I know I do.

It’s been good to know you

Over the years, Haroldine and I have received thousands of letters, calls and e-mails and, with but a few exceptions, all of you have been like the men we met on Highway 101 some 43 years ago. We are happy to have known you and even prouder to have had the pleasure of serving you all these years.

Regrettably our health is not what it used to be, and our children want us to move to a location near them. So it is off to Kansas. We will miss the green trees, the snow-capped mountains and the delightful beaches, but most of all we will miss you, the wonderful and challenging people of Clallam County.

May all your days be sunshine and rainbows.

Andy and Haroldine Nisbet

Sequim