The son of a pioneer northern Puget Sound family, Jack D. Kerlee passed away peacefully at the age of 91 in Coupeville after a long and productive life.

Born Sept. 8, 1914, Jack was a 1932 graduate of Burlington High School. He went on to receive his degree in Forest Management from the University of Washington in 1938. The following year Jack entered the U.S. Navy’s Midshipman School in New York City, where he was commissioned as a Navy Engineer in 1940, whereupon he embarked from San Francisco aboard the USS Dunlap. Between 1940 and 1942 he was based in Pearl Harbor serving on aircraft carrier support vessels. He was at sea on Dec. 7, 1941, escorting a storm-delayed Enterprise, thus avoiding the infamous attack. His subsequent World War II service was all over the South Pacific aboard the USS Cassin. From ’44 to ’46 Navy Lt. Kerlee trained new officers at Camp Peary, Va.

Come peacetime, Jack wed Josephine Mehaffey in Sedro-Woolley. After a year with State Forestry, he joined Weyerhaeuser’s Snoqualmie Falls lumber operation as a surveyor. For the next 30 years he served as a timber cruiser, land agent, and logging engineer for the company, including two exceptional years in North Borneo, Malaysia (1972-73) amongst the hardwoods. His retirement came in 1978.

Jack is survived by his daughter Jackie J. Wood, wife of Gary Wood of Coupeville; son Wes Kerlee and his wife Joy of Fall City; grandsons Mike Kerlee of Fall City and Don Kerlee and his wife Kathy, and great-grandchildren Brent and Kimberly of Centralia.

In his final years, Jack benefited greatly from the loving care of Jimma Robbins-Miller at Sylvia’s Adult Home in Coupeville. Graveside services will be held at Burlington Greenhills Memorial Cemetery in Burlington on Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 1 p.m. Reverend Harold DeGroot will be officiating. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care and direction of Affordable Burial & Cremation Services, LLC of Mount Vernon.