Volunteer Profiles

Bruce Jones

BruceJones.
Photo: Luci J. Baker Johnson

Bruce Jones and his wife Susan have been residents of the Queen Anne neighborhood since 2000, when they relocated to Seattle from Atlanta, Georgia. They love the older homes, the ability to walk to things, and Queen Anne's strong sense of neighborhood.

Bruce joined the Queen Anne Historical Society (QAHS) soon after they arrived, and plunged right in. He started a historic preservation committee, and in just two years the committee has grown into a vital part of the community, working handin- hand with Historic Seattle and other preservation groups to protect Queen Anne's built environment. He also manages the QAHS website, is a tireless historic photo researcher, and was part of the QAHS committee that created the neighborhood's Historical Marker Program to boost community awareness of the need to preserve older residences. He has served as the Society's president, and has worked hard to get the Society's archives in shape and accessible to researchers.

Bruce is from Southern California, and graduated from UCLA with a degree in mathematics. He was a pilot in the US Air Force for 7 years before working in sales for IBM, from which he retired in 2006.

Bruce has expanded his sphere of involvement by joining Historic Seattle, the National Trust, and the Washington State Historical Society. He's known as a skilled and exceptionally well organized project manager, widely recognized for his calm, level-headed ability to manage multiple priorities to a successful conclusion. It was these skills that made him the perfect match for becoming a Historic Seattle Project Lead Volunteer. He took on the oversight and organization of the Good Shepherd Center Centennial celebration that took place on Sunday, July 22nd.

We're anticipating a great relationship with Bruce as a project lead volunteer. Hopefully this is just the beginning of good things to come with Bruce in charge. He leads with enthusiasm and the ability to motivate others.

Lynn Moore

Lynn Moore .
Photo: Luci J. Baker Johnson

If you've ever been to a Historic Seattle Tea & Tour, attended the annual Bungalow Fair, or enjoyed a prepared lunch during our Landmarks Nomination Workshop; chances are you have met Lynn Moore. Lynn and his husband, Ron, have been members since 1994 and both began volunteering almost immediately. Lynn was recognized as the 2005 Volunteer of the Year and is our featured volunteer for this issue of Preservation News. She's one of those special volunteers who works quietly behind the scenes making sure all are well fed and feel comfortable.

In the spring of 2005 Lynn was approached to take on the task of Tea & Tour Coordinator for future Tea & Tour events. She graciously said yes and quickly began to take over the reins as if it was second nature. Her experience in the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority an international women's friendship network, and as a Tea & Tour docent provides her with the necessary skills and talent to know what's needed and how to get the tasks done to perfection. Lynn recruits the volunteer docents and brings all the "accoutrements" that are necessary to our noteworthy teas. She's the one in the kitchen with the apron and a smile. Her knowledge and organizational skills are very much appreciated.

Lynn has come to be known as 'Caterer Extraordinaire'. In addition to Tea & Tours, she has been the woman behind the food at many Historic Seattle events and gatherings. What you might not know about Lynn, and her husband Ron is that they are in the final stages of building their dream home on Camano Island.

 

Pete Mills

Pete Mills .
Photo: Peri Muhich

Pete Mills, Historic Seattle council member since 2003, was introduced to the organization several years ago when he and his wife, Jaymie, attended one of our Preserve Your Old House lectures. At that time, they had just begun working on their 1927 bungalow in Ballard. Pete says by attending that lecture he became more aware of the proper way to go about the work without jeopardizing the historic integrity of the house.

Pete grew up in Poulsbo, WA, the youngest of five children. He has worked as a wilderness ranger, summer camp director, juvenile counselor, and fundraiser. His fundraising experience came in handy during the fall of 2004 when Pete co-chaired Historic Seattle’s first annual On-line Auction, which raised over $12,000.

Pete can often be seen at Historic Seattle events encouraging those who are not members to join the organization and support architectural preservation.

Learn more about Pete Mills.

Luci Baker Johnson

Luci Baker Johnson.
Photo: Peri Muhich

Luci BakerJohnson has been a member and volunteer for Historic Seattle since 2000. Her favorite Historic Seattle events are the Tea & Tours. She enjoys learning about the homes from the owners and passing that information along to tour attendees. She also enjoys the annual Bungalow & Craftsman's Fair because she has the opportunity to meet so many interesting people. Luci's enthusiasm, curiosity, and interest in architecture have led her to drive around Seattle neighborhoods and learn about residential styles. She has reviewed past Historic Seattle programs and suggested future programs. Luci has also identified other organizations and businesses that might be targeted as potential audiences.

Currently, each Wednesday, Luci can be found at the Dearborn house doing data entry for the Historic Seattle reference library database; a daunting task but a necessary first step in our goal to create effective research tools.

Robin Evans

Robin Evans.
Photo: Peri Muhich

Robin Evans became aware of Historic Seattle in 1990 when another member, Mary Kae McCullough, called to ask him if he would be willing to help the organization with a computer problem. At that time Historic Seattle only had 4 employees and one computer. The membership database contained about 1,200 records.

In August of 1998 Robin re-wrote the membership database resulting with our database today, which currently contains over 5,000 records. Through the years, Robin has continued to provide computer software support for our organization.

Robin moved to Seattle in 1980 from his home state of Montana where he had attended the University of Montana majoring in Philosophy. After his move to the Pacific Northwest he was the editor for the Seattle Gay News from 1980-82. In 1982 he started another publication Lights and was its editor for an additional two years. He also worked for Microsoft for several years.When Robin isn't busy designing computer programs, his interests include photography and desktop publishing.

Marissa Natkin

Marissa Natkin
Photo: Russ Meltzer.

Marissa Natkin, Historic Seattle's Webmaster and Photographer, began her relationship with Historic Seattle in 1995 as a volunteer. At that time, Historic Seattle's office was in Pioneer Square and there were just a few employees. Marissa's first assignment was to organize and identify several boxes of photos.

In the year that Historic Seattle launched it's first website, Marissa volunteered over 1000 hours to the task in addition to holding down her full-time job. Since that time, Marissa has worked with Historic Seattle to create four iterations of the site - the most recent with a shopping cart addition. In 2005, Marissa was proud to represent Historic Seattle as a speaker at Connecting for a Cause, an annual seminar for non-profit organizations.

"Volunteerism is a strong value for me and Historic Seattle is a wonderful place to volunteer. I have always felt so grateful for this organization and its leadership - the opportunites to engage and to grow here are numerous."

Marissa is a Seattle native with a real passion for her city's architecture and beauty. She graduated from Mills College in California where she majored in Fine Arts with Film/ Video emphasis.. Her post- graduate studies in drafting and computer technology led to a position as CAD drafter on large-scale construction projects - work which she very much enjoyed for sometime before returning to her first love of photography. Marissa is the owner of Marissa Natkin Photography & Design. She lives in Seattle with her family.

 

Michael Voris

Michael Voris became a member of Historic Seattle in 1996, and soon afterward became involved in Historic Seattle's Arts & Crafts Guild. Michael has given invaluable help each year with planning and executing of Historic Seattle's Bungalow & Craftsman Home Fair and attends many other Historic Seattle events throughout the year. Michael is a thirty-year employee of King County Metro. He is also a founding member of the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association. Every year this group operates five or six trips with the trolley and motor buses in King County's historic fleet.

Connie Schnell

Connie Schnell.
Photo: Luci J. Baker Johnson

Connie Schnell recently celebrated 10 years as a volunteerwith Historic Seattle. She’s a vibrant and friendly womanwith a great deal to say and expresses herself both withtwinkling eyes and her never-ending hand motions.Connie was the oldest of four children and came, with herparents, to Seattle from Iowa, at the age 14. She met her latehusband while in line to vote for the thirty-fifth president ofthe United States, John F. Kennedy. A clinical social workerfor Group Health, Connie retired in 1995.Connie’s interest and involvement with Historic Seattlestems from a life-long interested in houses, a love of history,fascination with people’s lives and the fact that she married an architect. Connie has addressed envelopes, servedrefreshments, polished silver, and been an annual volunteerat the Bungalow Fair. She can also be found at nearly ever Tea& Tour as a docent, often in the kitchen or talking with ourmembers and their guests.Her passion, however, has been the First Hill History project with which she volunteered in 1999. It combined herexpertise as an interviewer with her passion for history ofboth people and architecture. She conducted several oralhistory interviews with residents and former residents ofFirst Hill. Connie has conducted first-person interviews andtranscribed the tapes to a type-written format. Theseinterviews, along with other ephemera will be part of thecollection in the new Northwest Resource Center.We appreciate Connie’s tenacity with the First Hill Project and look forward to her continued involvement.

Janet Nelson

Janet Nelson.
Photo: Peri Muhich

Janet Nelson, a Tea & Tours volunteer since 1999 states, "I've never been invited to a mansion in Seattle, so when I read about upcoming events and found Historic Seattle tours and membership, I was very pleased." She considers the access to some of Seattle's historically significant homes the biggest perk of being involved with the organization. Janet credits being a Tea & Tours volunteer with furthering her architecture, art, and Seattle history education and views Historic Seattle as being the ultimate resource for information about and access to historic homes in Seattle. As you can probably tell, residential architecture is one of Janet's passions. Her favorite section of the Seattle Times is Pacific Northwest Magazine because of the articles on Seattle homes, many of them historic. Her favorite college course was an architecture class. And on her vacations, her favorite activity is visiting historic mansions. Our thanks go out to Janet for all her enthusiasm and all the excitement she generates for Historic Seattle.

Louis Scheck

Louis Scheck.
Photo: Peri Muhich

Our volunteer extraordinaire, Louis Scheck has been a member and volunteer of Historic Seattle since 1993. In fact, Louis started volunteering for Historic Seattle when we were only a staff of four and needed all the help we could get. Trained as an architect, Louis is currently a real estate agent for Windermere, Capitol Hill. Originally from the Chicago area, he relocated to Seattle from Santa Monica. While in Santa Monica, Louis restored and lived in a bungalow in the Ocean Park neighborhood. Buying and restoring older homes continues to be one of his hobbies. Louis enjoys doing home and walking tours and has recently started to help the Seattle Architectural Foundation with their walking tours. Louis' invaluable work for Historic Seattle has included planning and executing the annual neighborhood lecture series for both Capitol Hill & Queen Anne and assisting every year with the Bungalow Fair. His sense of humor, architectural expertise, and enthusiasm have added so much to our organization. Thank you, Louis.

Martha Tofferi

Martha Tofferi.
Photo: Peri Muhich

As a self-described "behind-the-scene" kind of person, Martha Tofferi has been a member of Historic Seattle since the fall of 1997 when she attended a Seattle Architectural Foundation walking tour of Wallingford. The tour began at the Good Shepherd Center where Historic Seattle was hosting the Bungalow & Craftsman Home Fair. Martha attended the fair and decided to join Historic Seattle. Once a week, Martha can be found helping out at the Dearborn House, home of Historic Seattle's offices. She has an unlimited talent for office administrative duties and pitches in to help with whatever is needed. As she says, she has become "a wiz at alphabetizing and organizing." Martha also volunteers once a week at the Magnolia branch of the Seattle Public Library teaching basic Computer and Internet skills. When she isn't busy volunteering, Martha enjoys reading mysteries and working for the King County Library system at the main headquarters in Issaquah. We thank Martha for her generous gifts of time and talent.

Ron Moore

Ron Moore.
Photo: Peri Muhich

If you've ever been to one of our Tea & Tours or the Bungalow and Craftsman Home Fair, chances are you have met Ron Moore, our featured volunteer for Fall, 2001. Since 1995, Ron has been instrumental in the success of many of Historic Seattle's events...and he does it all! From showing up at our 1999 Silver Anniversary Gala in a top hat and tails to building Arts & Crafts-styled lanterns for the Bungalow Fair, Ron is a versatile and talented volunteer whose charm and gregarious demeanor add so much to every event he attends. Ron and his wife, Lynn, have been members since 1994 and both began volunteering shortly thereafter. Ron cites our Tea & Tour program as his favorite event for volunteering. When Ron isn't involved with Historic Seattle, you can find him working at his business of rain gutter installation for historic properties (including the Dearborn House). We thank Ron for his tireless efforts and his enthusiasm and support for Historic Seattle and architectural preservation.

Emily Kozie

Emily Kozie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn more about Beth Dodrill.

Learn more about Eugenia Woo.

Learn more about Lorne McConachie.

Learn more about Flo Lentz.

Learn more about Larry Johnson.

Learn more about Martha Young.