We have lost two directors while serving the Arch 

Cape community in utility district leadership positions.

  Both passed away while serving as directors on the water

and sanitary boards.  Virginia in June and Ron in October of

2019.

   Most recently as President of both districts, Ron was well known for his dedication to the community acquisition of the Arch Cape watershed.  He had a real passion for the Arch Cape Forest project and invested his time and considerable energy in furthering this effort.

   He first joined the boards in 2014 "closing the circle" for these municipalities which were created in their present form in 1993 when his wife, Pat Noonan served as President.  Ron and Pat came to Arch Cape in 1979 and purchased their home from Chuck and Maxine Smith who owned and operated the Arch Cape shingle mill at the end of Shingle Mill Lane.  Although both were lawyers, he and Pat opened and ran the Cafe de la Mer restaurant in Cannon Beach for twenty years and developed it into an award wining north coast destination.  Subsequently they both worked throughout the world for USAID traveling to South Sudan in Africa, Iraq, and the west bank of the middle east, Republics of Georgia and Kosovo, Albania and Cambodia, teaching and assisting in international law reform for countries in transition.

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   Virginia provided key leadership as President of both districts in the standardization of meeting notices and minutes as well as the creation and publishing of policies giving guidance for the administration of the districts.  She served for over 8 years on the boards.  

   Virginia was a teacher, director of special education, administrator and Clover Park Education Association union president for 30 years  in the Clover Park School District on Puget Sound in Washington.  She last taught for 17 years in the Nehalem Elementary School where she inspired hundreds of children, better preparing them for the future.  Virginia brought her whole heart to her work as a teacher, infusing her classrooms with homey charm.  She created a warm learning atmosphere that embodied her pride in her profession and her love of children in whose lives she invested so much of herself.  She was an avid and accomplished downhill skier where she was an instructor at the Mt. Rainier Cascade Ski School and enjoyed a long association with the mountains of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and California highlighting the first half of her life.  Virginia had a well regarded love of flowers and gardening and incorporated beautiful arrangements in her home.  

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   They each had a significant impact in bringing the districts to the level of professionalism and credibility that they enjoy in the community today.  Both Ron and Virginia will be missed by that community and by the directors on the boards on which they served.