Sue Gunn, environmentalist who served on Port of Olympia Commission, dies at 74
This story has been corrected with new information.
Sue Gunn, a committed environmentalist who set out to shake up the status quo when she served on the Port of Olympia Commission from 2013 to 2015, died this week in Seattle. Gunn was 74.
Although she was a Bellingham resident, Gunn died due to complications from a heart procedure at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, two people close to her said Friday.
Friend Cynthia Stewart described her as a brilliant woman who cared passionately about a lot of things, including the environment. Stewart said Gunn had most recently served on the board at the Center for Sustainable Forestry. She also was an avid hiker, camper and kayaker and had earned a doctorate in geology. She moved to Bellingham in 2019, Stewart said.
“She was just an amazing, brilliant woman,” she said.
Gunn ran for Port Commissioner in 2013 and defeated Jeff Davis for the District 3 seat.
After her win, she immediately pushed for more transparency at the port and called for a much more thorough review of the port’s executive director, according to The Olympian archives.
“It is a formidable position,” she said about the executive director, “and therefore I think a formidable evaluation and criteria is needed.”
She proposed eliminating the port’s citizens advisory committee and replacing it with two new community advisory councils: one focused on the airport, the other on the marine terminal.
But Gunn’s two-year tenure at the port was ultimately highlighted by a controversial act to un-excuse her absences from port meetings after she had open-heart surgery.
Under state law, if a commissioner’s lack of attendance is not excused by the commission for 60 continuous days, the position on the commission can be vacated and the port can appoint someone to the position.
It all came to a head during a February 2015 port meeting, The Olympian reported.
Commissioner George Barner made a motion to excuse her from that meeting, but Commissioner Bill McGregor chose not to second the motion and it failed.
“I’m not in favor of continuing to excuse her at this point,” McGregor said.
A member of the public responded sharply to McGregor’s decision.
“This is the most mean-spirited thing I’ve ever heard in a public meeting,” Olympia resident Paul Pickett said, pointing out that Gunn was recovering from open-heart surgery.
“You don’t have enough compassion to let it play out or pick up the phone yourself? I hope you talk to her because she fully intends to return,” he said.
McGregor said he did not intend to be mean-spirited, but if the three-member commission should lose another commissioner, then “no port business can be conducted.”
“I wish her all the best, but we need to do something,” he said.
Gunn ultimately resigned, saying she didn’t have the energy, given the state of her health, to research and analyze port issues and explore what they mean to the taxpayers, environment and the community at large.
“Doing the homework is very important to me,” she said.
Gunn was temporarily replaced on the commission by Michelle Morris. Morris chose not to run for the District 3 seat that fall, a seat that was ultimately won by E.J. Zita.
“I appreciated Sue as an elected official, and enjoyed her company as a friend and as a participant in the electoral process; I will miss her deeply,” Olympia resident Jim Lazar said Thursday.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
