Family Photos 2014
Quinn Tower
This is pretty cool. Working at Quinn Group, I had always heard stories about how our founder, Jerry Quinn, saved the Riverfront Park Clock Tower from demolition. With the 40th Anniversary of Expo ’74 coming up, Jerry has been getting some recognition for his efforts.
Below, listen to his radio interview & read an article about how it all went down.
KXLY AM 920 Interview
Spokesman-Review Article
Doug Clark: Jerry Quinn saved Clocktower, but he’s still sore over long-gone depots
Doug Clark
Try to envision Spokane without that Clocktower, jutting grandly out of the former Expo ’74 landscape that we now call Riverfront Park.
I can’t.
Sure, maybe our beloved brick landmark isn’t quite on a par with Seattle’s Space Needle.
But Spokane has never had the pretense of those prisoners of taste to the west of us. I’ll settle for Spokane humility any old day.
Hard to believe that the Clocktower was ground zero for a contentious civic feud that was waged in the days leading up to Spokane’s first (and quite possibly last) World’s Fair.
On one side was Save Our Stations.
Made up of preservationist-minded community members, the SOS crowd sought to rescue the two train stations that occupied sizable chunks of real estate on the future Expo grounds.
The aged depots were the Great Northern, which included the Clocktower, and the Union Pacific. Both depots were gifted to the city by the railroads as part of the Expo makeover deal.
On the other side of the struggle were the progressives: Expo movers and shakers and pretty much the city’s leadership from the mayor on down.
To them, well … this July 1972 newspaper excerpt quoting then-Councilman Del E. Jones does a fine job of summing up the anti-depot sentiment: The stations, huffed Jones, “ ‘have served their purposes,’ are ‘an eyesore’ and should be removed: ‘I say let’s get rid of them.’ ”
Like most everyone in Spokane, I had completely forgotten about this tempest in a rail yard.
Until, that is, I received an email telling me about a former advertising executive who led the SOS in its ultimately doomed fight against the wrecking ball: Jerry Quinn.
With the 40th anniversary of Expo looming, it seemed like an ideal time to meet this character and hear what he had to say.
You’ve heard that time heals all wounds? Quinn might have missed the message. Forty years and change later, the demolished depots are still a shot to the heart.
“I tried. I lost. Oh, well,” the 74-year-old said with a sigh.
Quinn makes a point of saying that his side was never against Expo ’74.
Expo, he agrees, was the catalyst that put this town on the world stage.
And not only that. Our environmental exposition with souvenir ashtrays transformed the downtown riverfront into one gem of a tourist destination.
Quinn’s point – and it’s a good one – is that as grand as Riverfront Park may be, it could have been better, still, by saving at least the vast Great Northern depot.
I agree. The cavernous brick depot, with its marble floors and oak trim, could have become an all-purpose, year-round venue for weddings, concerts and special events.
“I was never anti-Expo,” he repeated. “I was for making Expo better.”
Though the stations may have had no industrial value, he added, in a parklike setting they would’ve been magnificent.
Of course, we are talking about the summer of 1972 when all this SOS stuff started hitting the fan.
Preserving historic edifices wasn’t very high on the list of social causes back then.
Need I remind you that it wasn’t so long ago when some of our so-called leaders talked favorably about tearing down The Davenport Hotel and Lewis and Clark High School?
Quinn is an engaging guy, a New Jersey transplant who migrated here in 1967 with Alice, his wife.
“I fell in love with Spokane,” he said.
So how does an outsider from the East Coast wind up leading a civic crusade like SOS?
The answer can be found in one short word: trains.
Quinn is off the rails about trains. At one point, Quinn’s model train obsession consisted of 600 locomotives and 3,000 cars.
He was certainly in his element when I met him Tuesday.
Quinn was tending court inside Evergreen Railroad Modelers, a model train lovers’ delight located in a Greenacres strip mall.
The entire room is devoted to the hobby.
There are realistic HO-scale layouts of intricate towns, wooded mountains, rocky cliffs and 800 feet of track to run those tiny trains on.
Quinn directed the Inland Empire chapter of the National Railway Historical Society back in the day. He said his concern for the depots began when he saw that they weren’t included on the first Expo plan.
His investigation took him to City Hall, where he said he was told by a city official that the depots had to go because of their worn-out boilers that were too expensive to replace.
Quinn soon discovered the boiler excuse was bogus.
Those depots, he said, were heated by the Washington Water Power steam plant.
“I was infuriated that a city official would lie to a citizen.”
Oh, Jerry. You poor, naive soul.
Within months, the SOS was making headlines.
They took their case to City Council. They staged a peaceful march through the streets of Spokane.
Quinn said leading the SOS got him mocked by business leaders. He even received anonymous calls at home from people who told him to get out of town.
Things came to a head when the SOS gathered enough signatures on petitions to put the fate of the two stations in the hands of the voters. Who derailed them with too many “no” votes.
In the end, however, the city didn’t toss the entire baby out with the bathwater. An earlier plan to keep the Clocktower was made good and, thankfully, it still stands tall today.
For Quinn, it sometimes has been a bitter lemon to suck on.
“It’s like showing people where George Washington’s home once was and saying, ‘but there’s the chimney,’ ” he said.
But the SOS man is enough of a realist to see the value of this icon in the park. He even smiles when some of his pals refer to it as Quinn Tower.
“It makes me feel good that it was saved,” said the railroad man.
Panoramic Radiograph
James’s First Steps
James took his first steps on Saturday, January 11th, 2014.
Whiskers
Pearl Jam 2013 Spokane
SPOKANE ARENA
Spokane, WA
Sat 30 November, 2013
SET 1
Pendulum
Release
Sirens
Corduroy
Once
Lightning Bolt
Mind Your Manners
Faithfull
Tremor Christ
Even Flow
Getaway
Present Tense
Swallowed Whole
Daughter
After Hours
Let The Records Play
Push Me, Pull Me
Jeremy
Do The Evolution
Porch
ENCORE 1
I Won’t Back Down
Nothing As it Seems
Footsteps
Severed Hand
Don’t Gimme No Lip
Brain Of J.
Go
Black
Rearviewmirror
ENCORE 2
Given To Fly
Eruption
Ain’t Talkin ‘Bout Love
Alive
Yellow Ledbetter
Happy 1st Birthday James
Shanny the Nanny
Today is our nanny, Shannon‘s, last day. She’s not only in her third trimester but she’s moving to Boise with her husband!
She has been a wonderful addition to our family and we will miss her greatly. Our little boy James was very lucky to have her in his life for his first year.
As a going away present, my wife wrote a beautiful note and then gave me links to some of Shannon’s best instagram photos of our little boy. I put it all together and let’s just say there were some tears shed this morning when I gave it to her.
Dear Shannon,
You were my PARENT when my mommy and daddy could not be with me.
You were my TEACHER by reading me stories and showing me life lessons.
You were my BEST FRIEND day after day by playing with me and making me laugh.
Your positive influence on the first year of my life will never be forgotten.
Thank you for being the best nanny ever!
I will miss you.
Love, James
Swinging Bliss
Watch Out!
Just driving down Garland Avenue. I cannot believe this actually happened.
Little Man James
Toy Car Destruction
Playing with James before work.
Cher Desautel Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award from EWU
My mother-in-law Cher Desautel was honored with a lifetime achievement award from Eastern Washington University. The Alumni Gala was a really fun event and I’m very proud to call her “Mom”.
DHC President and CEO Cher Desautel was the star of the show at this year’s EWU Alumni Awards Gala, earning the Lifetime Achievement award for a career filled with unwavering dedication to her craft and many days that were, in her words, “real rip-snorters.”
At the event, presenters coined the award “the highest honor bestowed by EWU’s Alumni Association”, and we are proud they’ve made Cher part of an exclusive list of recipients. EWU outlines four criteria of award recipients, and well, we think she fits the bill quite nicely:
- Demonstrate a history of active participation in EWU’s community and a commitment to ensuring its future vitality
- Have a lifetime record of substantive contributions to their professional field
- Exemplify outstanding leadership and mentorship to others
- Serve as a role model through a strong commitment to community service
Not only is Cher an active EWU alum, she has served as a faculty member and hired EWU grads as interns and full-timers. Cher has represented EWU and DHC on countless boards and committees over the years, taught at every one of our regional universities, and has served as a powerful mentor for scores of young professionals. We could go on and on about Cher’s leadership in our community, our industry and here at DHC, but this fantastic video created by EWU captures it all.
Breaking Out in Hives
My dad was featured in a photo in the Spokesman-Review today. Note the gloveless hands.
Keeping buzzy: Beekeeper Thomas Douville tends to one of his beehives, looking for a queen and checking progress among drone bees, as he works to prepare for summer honey production Tuesday in Spokane’s Peaceful Valley neighborhood. Douville owns Selkirk Honey Farm and sells his honey at a number of local markets, including Rusty’s Produce in Spokane Valley and Mother’s Cupboard Nutrition in Spokane. Douville, who got into beekeeping from a friend 13 years ago, said anyone interested in the hobby should contact the Inland Empire Beekeepers Association.
EPIC powder day at Schweitzer. Unbelievable.
It being so late in the ski season, we weren’t expecting great snow or weather. I figured it’d be raining and we’d be soaked by lunch. The snow gods had another plan. It was dumping snow all day. Total blizzard. The back bowl was endless deep powder. Thank you, all mighty gods of snow. You made a lot of people very happy this day!
1964 Chevelle El Camino
Looking through old photos and found this pic of my ’64 El Camino parked at a secret trailhead in Montana. Good car, good memories. It had a rebuilt 230 cu in straight-six and it originally had a three speed manual column shifter (“three-on-the-tree”), but I replaced that with a standard four speed manual (“four on the floor!”). It looked nice but it wasn’t a hot rod.
Sadly, I wrecked this car pretty bad on a different backpacking trip. Long story short: I was ejected from the vehicle (out the door – not through the window) and totaled the car. Major concussion, broken nose, fractured jaw, fractured sinus cavity, ocular lacerations dangerously close to my eye, 80 mile ambulance ride and two full days in the hospital. I recovered fully and only have a barely noticeable scar under my right eye. I may revisit this story sometime in fuller detail, but for now – look at that cool car!
Hadouken!
Lack of Faith
Christmas 1978
I found another great photo of my dad and I when I was just a wee baby on Christmas day, 1978. Click here to see another old photo I found.
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