Former Bainbridge Island resident Kenneth G. Myers, age 94, of Seattle, died June 13.

He was born June 24, 1908 in Seattle to Alexander Myers and Mary (Brown) Myers.

He graduated from Garfield High School and the University of Washington, and received an honorary doctorate from Whitworth College.

Bainbridge Island became special to him when he spent the first of a lifetime of summers here at his family’s cabin on Yeomalt.

He later began a romance on the Mosquito Fleet ferries with Winslow High graduate Luella Nelson, whom he married.

In 1930, they hired Paul Hardy to build their Yeomalt home (without plumbing) for $1,325.

They moved to Seattle in 1938, keeping the Yeomalt property as their summer home until Ken and a partner purchased the abandoned YWCA camp on Yeomalt Point in 1952 and subdivided it (waterfront lots then sold for $60 per front foot).

He kept the lot on the point for a new home. It was from this spot that he and a friend saved an Air Force pilot from drowning when his plane crashed into Puget Sound.

During a career in the insurance industry, he was the recipient of the state’s second CPCU designation and served as president of the King County Insurance Association.

While active in business on the island, he served as president of the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce and worked on such community activities as the Strawberry Festival and lighting the high school football field.

He was a charter member of Bainbridge Island Rotary, was involved in the development of Meadowmeer, and was treasurer of the Meadowmeer Golf Club, where he played well into his eighties.

During the spring of 1942, when Japanese Americans were ordered into wartime internment, Myers supported Review editor Walt Woodward in standing up for the rights of his fellow community members and friends.

He was among the islanders who stood at the Eagledale dock as Japanese Americans boarded the ferry Keholoken. He helped look after their property while they were gone and assisted them upon their return, securing insurance for the first returning internee.

Service to his community also included chairing the Seattle City Transit Commission, serving 32 years on the Kenney Home board, chairing the Whitworth College board of Trustees, YMCA leadership activities, and serving as president of the Seabeck Christian Conference Ground for 25 years.

He was treasurer of Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 and Richard Nixon’s 1968 Washington primary campaigns, Gordon Clinton’s campaigns for mayor of Seattle, and the 1976 Billy Graham Seattle Kingdome Crusade.

His strong faith in Christ was lived out in business and family relationships, and in serving in Christian Endeavor and Presbyterian leadership roles including elder at the Rolling Bay, University and First Presbyterian churches.

At Bayview Manor, where he lived his last 20 years, he served as president of the residents council and the Bayview Manor Foundation.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Luella. He is survived by his children, Nancy, Dick, David and Jim, and nine grandchildren, Julie, Rick, Jenny, Kim, Kathy, Kenny, Andy, Peter and Laura.

A celebration of life was held June 26 at Bayview Manor in Seattle. Memorials can be made to the “Let It Not Happen Again” Memorial Fund, c/o 1298 Grow Avenue, Bainbridge 98110.