Pat Ash, Sydney Stevens, Lynette Rae McAdams

Sometimes, high visibility is a good thing, and last night was one of those times.  I was told when we arrived at the “Charles Fitzpatrick: Pen and Photo” opening that two people would be looking for me.  Good thing I was wearing my yellow rain hat!

First to find me was Pat Ash.  We ‘knew’ each other only through a telephone call and a few email exchanges.  She is Charles Fitzpatrick’s adopted first cousin thrice removed.  She ‘found’ me in cyberspace last Spring in a quest for information; one of the Sou’westers I had edited showed some photos by Charles credited to “Espy Family Collection.”   At that point, Pat realized that Charles Fitzpatrick had a connection to the Peninsula and she tracked me down.  (She is a super sleuth.  Her brother-in-law says, “She should have been a bill collector!”)

I told her what I knew, which wasn’t very much about Charles, himself, but mostly about the incredible documentation he left behind through his photographs and drawings.  I suggested she get in touch with Adelle Beechey who actually knew Fitzpatrick ‘in person’.  And I told her to contact the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum and talk to Collections Manager Barbara Minard who was just beginning to comb their archives in preparation for an upcoming exhibit about her adopted ancestor and his work.

‘Loomis Station’ – Charles Fitzpatrick Pen and Ink

Pat followed those suggestions which eventually resulted in a serendipity of related events including the ‘discovery’ of two sisters descended from Charles’s adopted family.  They have boxes of heretofore ‘unseen’ documents related to Charles – including even his own autobiography written in the mid-1920s before he came to the Peninsula!  Eventually those treasures will also be given to the Heritage Museum for safekeeping and ‘for posterity.’

While we were talking with Pat and her husband, Museum Director Betsy Millard brought over the second person looking for me-in-my-yellow-hat.  She was Lynette Rae McAdams who wanted to interview Pat and me for Coast Weekend – one of those “story behind the exhibit” articles, I think.

‘Beach Patrol’ – Charles Fitzpatrick Photograph

We had such a good time laughing and talking that I never did get a really good look at the show.  It will be up until the end of the year, so I plan to go back frequently.  It is a fabulous display of images documenting our Peninsula history from earliest days (thanks to Fitzpatrick’s finely wrought pen and inks) and showing a wide array of his photographs taken throughout his years (1927-1964) here.  His curiosity and attention to detail have left us an unsurpassed legacy.  The exhibit should be a Must See on the list of anyone who loves our Peninsula!