Webb Ware Trimble
c1906 - June 8, 1998
Webb Ware Trimble, 92, Was Rich In Service To Others
By Carole Beers, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Webb Ware Trimble enjoyed a youth nearly as privileged as an F. Scott Fitzgerald hero. Born into Seattle high society, he lived in a world of fine cars, boats, a private island and a private education.
That world came crashing down on his family in 1929 after his mother died in a car accident and when it lost everything in the Depression.
But in those losses Mr. Trimble found himself, said his daughter, Cassandra Trimble of Seattle.
"He served as an officer in the Army's 96th Division in Leyte and on Okinawa in World War II," Trimble said. "Then he put himself at the service of the U.S. government Department of the Interior, helping Alaskan people develop modern towns and services, and working as an administrator with the Veterans Administration in Seattle.
"He took to heart the ethic of service that was pounded into him at Groton School (in Massachusetts) and at Yale. He delivered. Money was pretty unimportant because they had lost it anyway."
Mr. Trimble died Monday (June 8) of the effects of Alzheimer's disease. He was 92.
One of five children of Seattle real-estate tycoon William Pitt Trimble and Kentucky-born socialite Cannie Ford Trimble, he grew up in a large home on First Hill, attended an East Coast boarding school and summered on Trimble Island, now Blake Island, on Puget Sound. His parents owned the island from 1903 to the early 1930s.
Mr. Trimble learned to sail, ride and enjoy lavish parties - former U.S. President William Howard Taft was an island visitor.
He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Yale and was a bond salesman in New York and congressional aide in Washington, D.C., before joining the Army.
Mr. Trimble returned to Seattle to work for the Veterans Administration, now Veterans Affairs, and moved to Alaska to serve in the state Public Works Department to set up municipal bonds so that small towns could finance public utilities.
"He was such a friendly, patient guy, everybody adored him," said his daughter. "He drew on a blackboard to teach villagers municipal finance, so they could see how their cigarette and other taxes would be used. He also trained Inuit men in the Army National Guard."
He returned to Seattle in 1960 to oversee the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration in the Northwest until retiring in 1971.
Community involvements included work with Seattle's English Speaking Union, founded by his parents; and the League of American Wheelmen, dedicated to creating bike paths for commuters and recreational riders.
No other immediate family survives. His wife of 51 years, Elizabeth Langille Trimble, died in 1994.
Services are at 2 p.m. Wednesday at St. Mark's Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Donations may go to the Veterans Affairs of Puget Sound HCS, American Lake Div.: 2CN Fund, Tacoma, WA 98493; or the Salvation Army, 111 Queen Anne Ave. N., Ste. 300, Seattle, WA, 98109.
The Seattle Times Newspaper
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