"If it hadn't been for my mother, I'd have probably been a bum. Every evening after dinner, my mom and I would walk up the hill behind our house and watch the sun dip into the Sound. She was the one who kept pushing and asking, 'Will you please go to college.' I enrolled at the University of Puget Sound."

"She was a great mother, in truth, a very lenient mother, an if-you're-going-to-do-something-wrong-you-should-do-it-at-home kind of mother. She had my brother when she was about 29 and had me when she was 35. When my father was alive, she never really worked. After dad died he left us $5,000 in debt, a lot for those days. So my mother was forced to go to work. She was a barmaid at the Parkway Tavern, which still exists. They had a little grocery store there and she poured beer. She didn't make much, but she would have given me anything. She never spent money on herself. You couldn't even buy her a dress. She made it very clear that she was not interested in presents. Honestly, I don't think she cares about objects. But she loves her house and she loves her garden and she likes to cook for people. She encouraged me to go to college because she and my father never had the chance. My brother did get two years of college. One of the reasons he went into the Navy was to get a scholarship so he could go back. I think my dad always felt guilty about that a little bit because he probably could have saved some money and helped him out."