Whidbey Island’s most successful and quixotic politician died Thursday at an Alzheimer’s care center in Oak Harbor.

Jack Metcalf, 79, spent six years, from 1994 to 2000, as a member of the U.S. Congress from the Second Congressional District, which capped off a long political career that included stints in the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives.

Raised in Langley on South Whidbey Island, Metcalf was a staunch conservative who went his own way on certain issues, wearing with pride the label of political maverick.

Norma Smith of Clinton was Metcalf’s special assistant during his years in Congress. Fighting off tears Friday morning, Smith expressed deep friendship for her political mentor. Metcalf inspired her to make her own run for Congress after he retired, but she fell short in the vote count against Democrat Rick Larsen.

“Jack was a genuine, wonderful, bright man who loved his family passionately and cared deeply about the issues in people’s lives,” she said. “Yes, he was a bit of a maverick, but he was true to who he was.”

One of Metcalf’s pet issues was term limits, and he supported a statewide initiative to impose term limits on elected officials. That initiative failed, but Metcalf ran on term limits in 1994 and stuck to his principles. He believed six years was enough time in Congress, and when his six years were up he retired.

Smith kept coming back to family when talking about Metcalf and his long, loving relationship with his wife Norma. Always graciously by his side and known far and wide for her cinnamon rolls, it’s safe to say that Norma Metcalf won quite a few votes for her husband over the years.

“Their love for one another and his commitment to family was the essence of who he was,” said Smith. “He had a deep faith that compelled him to do good.”

Mary Margaret Haugen took over the state Senate seat Metcalf left, and although she’s a Democrat she expressed respect for the man she succeeded.

“Jack Metcalf served with honor and distinction on several levels,” she said. “As a school teacher for 30 years, as a state representative, as a state senator and as a congressman. Jack was known as a conservative Republican, but the record shows he embodied the best aspects of political independence.”

Like a good Republican, Metcalf was a strong fiscal conservative. But his rustic upbringing on Puget Sound, with a family background in fishing and living off the land, made him supportive of environmental protection efforts. With close ties to working men and women, he sometimes sided with labor and found political support among unions — a rarity for Republicans. He opposed free trade with China while in Congress, worrying it would cost American jobs. However, he fought Indian fishing rights derived through the famous Boldt Decision, and that didn’t win him any friends in tribal politics.

Metcalf was strong on national defense and military readiness, but never forgot the needs of the individual soldier or sailor. After the Gulf War, his office took the lead in getting medical benefits for service men and women who got sick during the campaign.

“We did a lot of work on Gulf War illness. He felt an obligation to do things because they were right, not because they were politically expedient,” Smith said. Veterans organizations honored Metcalf’s efforts on their behalf.

The congressman was known for putting together a strong staff, led by Lew Moore and Chris Strow, who today is a state representative from Whidbey Island. Metcalf was interested in the wellbeing of everyone who worked for him, right down to the page level.

Melinda West served as Metcalf’s page in Washington, D.C., in 1995-96. Today, she works at a bank in Coupeville.

“That experience changed my life,” she said. “He was not only a fantastic congressman, but an amazing man. He took me under his wing and showed me how Congress worked. Other congressmen didn’t even know their pages’ names, but Jack even gave me a cake on my birthday.”

West recalls that Norma and Jack would take her to lunch on her days off. “They generally looked after and cared for a girl who was 16 living 3,000 miles from home,” she said. “Jack enabled people like me to try to accomplish more than I ever thought that I could.”

One of Metcalf’s environmental legacies, created with the help of Sen. Patty Murray, is the Northwest Straits Commission and the associated Island County Marine Resources Committee which help protect Puget Sound. He wanted an organization to protect Northwest waters without imposing a lot of new regulations.

Metcalf, tough and rail thin, honed his country boy image, wearing cowboy boots even with suits. Sporting a cowboy hat, he annually rode his faithful horse in the Island County Fair parade, and was often pictured chopping wood on his property on Saratoga Road near Langley. He and Norma spent six years building a huge log home that eventually became the Log Castle Bed & Breakfast. He opened up the family’s forested acreage to the public, taking care to publicize any necessary tree thinning in advance so trail users wouldn’t get upset. The media flocked to his property when, as a congressman, a dead gray whale washed up on his beach.

Metcalf would occasionally go off on a political tangent, especially when it came to monetary policy. He once launched a campaign against paper money and encouraged people to turn in their dollar bills for coins as a publicity stunt. He tried to do away with the Federal Reserve System and often spoke at conventions of gold bugs and other off-beat characters.

During his years in state government, he sometimes associated with conspiracy theorists, preaching his message against the Federal Reserve. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League criticized such associations but never called him an anti-Semite. Metcalf always said he would talk to anyone willing to listen.

Once a Seattle Times columnist, Patricia Fischer, pointed out such associations and questioned Metcalf’s motives in print. In response, he called her a “bubble head,” which caused an uproar because Fischer was African-American. But none of it seemed to damage Metcalf politically as he went on to get elected three times to Congress, and probably could have served longer had it not been for his belief in term limits.

Oak Harbor Republican leader Barney Beeksma, who served a term in the state House, on Friday described Metcalf as “a good friend.”

“The thing about Jack is that he was an independent thinker, no question about that,” said Beeksma, who became a local banking legend and eventually headed a national savings and loan organization. “He could talk to anyone, but he was rarely swayed by what anyone had to say. But even those who disagreed with him knew they could trust him.”

Beeksma watched Metcalf’s crusade against the Federal Reserve with curiosity over the years.

“Jack was a little unusual in his thoughts about monetary policy,” Beeksma said. “He wanted to go back to the pre-Fed days, to the gold standard. He had good reasons why, but it was impractical in this day and age. A lot of people probably chuckled over it.”

To Norma Smith, Jack Metcalf’s life serves as an example for others to follow.

“Jack never stopped being amazed he was living the American dream,” she said. “He inspired us to do the same. He was inspirational, the kid from Whidbey Island who grew up during the Depression and went to Congress.”