Jean Isobel Seeley (born Cook)
Personal
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: July 12, 1921
Date of Death: May 11, 2016
Birth Place: Portland, OR
Death Place: Bainbridge Island, WA
Jean Isobel Seeley
July 12, 1921 ~ May 11, 2016
Born July 12, 1921 to Robert Cook and Jean Ramsay Cook in Portland, OR, Isobel soon moved to Seattle where her father had taken a job as a pressman for the Seattle Times. The family suffered financially during the depression, lost their Seattle home, and moved to the Wayne Golf Course in Kenmore, where her father had a greens keeper position that included living quarters. After graduating from Bothell High School, she attended the University of Washington and graduated with a BS in nursing in February 1944. Her first nursing employment was at Harborview.
Later in 1944, she married Frank Edward Seeley, whom she had known since her first day at Bothell High School, and the two began a lifetime of adventures together. They lived in Port Townsend, spent several summers in New York City, lived in the Netherlands for a year on a teaching exchange, and returned to Seattle, where Isobel worked as a public health nurse and Frank taught at Ballard. Later they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Isobel first worked at the Palo Alto VA Hospital and ended her working career as a school nurse for the Campbell, CA school district.
Returning to the Northwest after retirement, Frank and Isobel bought a home on Bainbridge Island, where Frank died in December 2000. Isobel remained in her home for several years, thanks to the help she received from Kathryn Ritualo, who started out as Isobel’s housecleaner and later became her daily companion for the rest of her life. Isobel later lived at Wyatt House for eight years and at Martha & Mary in Poulsbo for two more.
Isobel was highly intelligent and had many interests. She loved to cook and entertain. Her personal collection of recipes from family and other sources is a true slice of culinary history. She loved the theatre and music and was an avid reader and seasoned world traveler. She also carried a highly developed sense of justice. Several of her classmates in nursing school were of Japanese American descent, and she never got over the treatment her friends and their families received at the hands of the US Government.
Isobel is survived by sons Morgan (Anne) of Bainbridge Island, and Dirk (Ruth Ann) of Chowchilla, California, and by grandsons Ben (Tracey), Budd (Christine), and Ted, and five great-grandchildren.
A celebration of Isobel’s life is planned and will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial.
Published in The Seattle Times on May 22, 2016
[Wife of grandson of SGS # 2423 – Frank Edward; Frank B.; Darwin B. (#2423); Benjamin (#874); Jonathan; Ephraim; John; Benjamin; Nathaniel; Robert]
