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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 2017
For Ilwaco Cemetery caretaker, a labor of life
Huitt retires
after 60 years of
digging graves
The Ilwaco Cemetery Associa-
tion will hold an open house to
honor Bob Huitt’s retirement at
Penttila’s Chapel-by-the-Sea,
1515 Pacific Ave., Long Beach,
Washington, 2 to 4 p.m., July 9.
By PATRICK WEBB
For EO Media Group
CHINOOK, Wash. — Hun-
dreds of families on the Long
Beach Peninsula have Bob
Huitt to thank — but only a
few know it.
Huitt has taken care of the
Ilwaco Cemetery since 1996.
And for the past 60 years, he
has dug graves at almost a
dozen s outhwest Washington
cemeteries.
Now 79, Huitt is retir-
ing and the Ilwaco Cemetery
Association plans to honor
him with a public open house
at Penttila’s Chapel-by-the-
Sea in Long Beach July 9.
Ron Hylton, owner of Pent-
tila’s, serves as one of fi ve
board members for the asso-
ciation. He is full of admira-
tion for Huitt’s reliability. “His
sense of dedication and loyalty
in doing what needs to be done
is second to none,” Hylton
said. “He is amazing — he has
never let us down.”
Community
connections
Huitt was born in Centralia,
Washington, just before World
War II and attended schools in
Cathlamet. Family diffi culties
meant he was raised during
his teenage years by older rel-
atives, Eldred and Dorothy
Penttila of Naselle. He grew
up around the funeral home
they operated, so grave dig-
ging was a natural extension of
that environment.
“My uncle took me out to
the cemetery and showed me
how to lay the planks,” he
recalled, when asked about his
fi rst. Graves must be 4 1/2 feet
deep, 36 inches wide and 8 feet
long. “‘I will be back to help,’
he said. But he never returned,
of course.”
Digging graves began as an
after-work activity, because he
Community
input on new
city manager
Patrick Webb/For EO Media Group
Patrick Webb/For EO Media Group
Bob Huitt has taken care
of Ilwaco Cemetery since
1996.
Bob Huitt checks out the meticulous records of all the
graves in the Ilwaco Cemetery that he has compiled. He
also has filed labeled photos of every headstone.
had other jobs. “I have done
a little bit of everything,” he
said.
Huitt’s late-1950s service
in the U.S. Air Force took him
to Lincoln, Nebraska, where
the Strategic Air Command
was shuffl ing nuclear war-
heads around when the Cold
War heated up. He recalls his
discharge date easily: Christ-
mas Day, 1960.
Returning to the Long
Beach Peninsula, he built log-
ging roads and worked other
jobs, including stints in fi sh
canneries. He served 29 years
with the Pacifi c County Road
Department.
Along the way, Huitt mar-
ried twice, had four children,
which he mainly raised alone
on his ranch, and has seven
grandchildren and three great
grandchildren. He has been on
his own for about 40 years.
would be eight hours. Some
cemeteries are harder than oth-
ers. In Naselle, it’s pretty solid
river rock.”
He has lost count of exactly
how many he has dug. At
one point, Huitt was digging
graves at 11 area cemeter-
ies stretching inland to Grays
River. However, the trend
toward cremation has meant
fewer burials. “Now it’s one
every two months, but in the
‘bad old days,’ it was 90 to 100
a year,” he said.
Brawn is not enough.
“Maybe people think
there’s nothing to digging a
grave, but you have to have
the right dimensions,” he said.
“You just don’t go out there
and dig a hole.”
Planks help set the correct
shape.
“You have to have straight
sides and ends because it must
be straight up and down,” he
said. “It has got to be perfectly
straight. It’s got to be square
because the liner is a square
box. If it is not square, it is not
going to go in the hole.”
Huitt keeps “set-ups” at
three local cemeteries which
consist of planks to place at
each end of the grave, grass
to drape over the open hole,
a lowering device for the cof-
fi n, and a tent with chairs for
mourners.
Digging by hand
Throughout the years, Huitt
dug graves using only a shovel
and a pick ax. “It was always
done by hand,” he said. “I
have gone through about four
picks.”
The Ilwaco hill site
includes tracts of solid clay,
which means a fi ve to six -hour
job for each gravesite. “Most
of the cemetery is pretty tough
digging. For someone new, it
Keeping it tidy
Cemetery maintenance has
been Huitt’s job since 1996.
It includes brush clearing and
tree trimming, but the acreage
covered in grass dominates the
assignment.
“It takes 17 hours to mow,”
he said, adding with a grin,
“Nobody knows how long it
takes to ‘weed-eat’ it — it’s a
never-ending project!”
Because the grounds
include a half-dozen additions,
Huitt spreads the mowing
over four days. When asked
if he has a riding lawn mower,
he laughs. “If it wasn’t, you
would never get it done.”
A couple of years ago, he
cleaned every headstone.
“It’s like taking care of
your own yard. I wanted to
keep it looking nice,” he said,
refl ecting on having to yield to
a younger successor. “I don’t
like the idea of not being able
to do it any more.”
Preserving memories
Huitt spent three years com-
piling a 4-inch thick ring binder
crammed with p eninsula burial
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By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — The
process to replace Cannon
Beach City Manager Brant
Kucera is now in full swing,
starting with feedback from
the community.
Kucera announced his
departure earlier this month to
take another city manager job
in Sisters, citing the need for a
“change of pace.”
Police Chief Jason Scher-
merhorn will act as interim
city manager starting in July.
Jensen Strategies, the
recruitment fi rm hired by
the city to conduct a nation-
wide search, has four months
to develop a job profi le with
input from the community,
staff and city councilors,
advertise and conduct inter-
views. Schermerhorn can only
act as interim city manager for
fourth months, otherwise the
city will violate its charter.
Interviews with city coun-
cilors and staff will be closed
meetings, but a community
forum will be held 5:30 p.m.
Thursday at C ity H all for any-
one who would like to offer
suggestions of what qualities
the recruiters should look for
in the next city manager.
“We want to fi nd someone
who fi ts the community,” Eric
Jensen, from Jensen Strate-
gies, said.
The job posting from when
Kucera was hired in 2014
listed experience with disaster
preparedness, fi nance, news
media, an appreciation for the
arts and fi ve years in public
administration as preferable
qualities in a candidate.
After collecting input from
the community, the C ity C oun-
cil will vote whether or not to
adopt the job description at the
Aug. 1 council meeting. Final
candidates will hold meet-and-
greet forums later in the fall.
When Kucera was hired, he
was chosen from a pool of 47
applicants. Jensen said he antic-
ipated the city will get a similar
applicant pool this year, as well.
names and plot locations that
date back to the 1800s. “I will
give this copy to the museum
one of these days,” he mused.
On his computer, he has pho-
tos of every headstone; all are
meticulously labeled.
His son, Stanley Huitt, a
fi sherman who died of hypo-
thermia in 1996, is bur-
ied in the Ilwaco Cemetery.
While he did not dig his son’s
grave, he did perform that
duty for his late sister, Bon-
nie Vaughn.
Reliving his career at
his Chinook home, Huitt’s
thoughts are practical rather
than philosophical. When
pressed, he shrugs. “I grew up
in the funeral home, so I went
to many funerals. They’re a
part of my life. … Life and
death. I think about it, but I’m
not really a religious person. I
believe in religion, though.”
When his time comes,
someone else will do the
honors.
“I bought 10 plots,” Huitt
said. His fi nal resting place?
“One of those 10, I suppose.”
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MONday, July 3rd
6:30pm: North Coast Symphonic Band
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Tuesday, July 4th
11am to 3pm: Warrenton’s Old-
Fashioned Fourth with Barbecue, Car
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3pm: Warrenton 4th of July Parade
Route follows South Main Avenue from
the post office to SW 9th Street
Dusk: Fireworks above the Columbia
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July 7 - September 9
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Our fireworks display
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Photos provided by: Columbia Press (parade),
Frank Allen (fireworks) and AW Chamber (trolley)