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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 2018)
DECEMBER 27, 2018 // 9 ARLINE LaMEAR EDDIE PARK DWIGHT CASWELL PHOTO DWIGHT CASWELL PHOTO “It’s been a long and winding trail,” Arline LaMear reminisced as her time as Astoria mayor drew to a close. As a child her family moved every five months — her father worked for the U.S. Geological Survey — a childhood that made LaMear adaptable and tolerant. After graduating from Occidental College, she taught English in Thailand, and returned to the U.S. to teach and to raise her two sons. Then it was back to school to learn library sci- ence, after which she was a school librarian for 21 years. It was this career and her dedication to Volkswalk (“America’s Walking Club”) that brought her to Astoria. She first came to Oregon as a summer volunteer at Oregon Dunes, then took a series COURTESY ARLINE LAMEAR of Volkswalks on the Oregon Coast. “I fell in Young Arline LaMear. love with Astoria,” she said. She took a six-month job at the Columbia River Maritime Museum cataloging their library. “I decided this is where I wanted to stay,” she said, and six months turned into 17 years. She volun- teered a lot, which led to a spot on the planning commission, and the rest is history. Now that she is leaving politics, how will she spend her time? She’s on the Library Foundation Board, engaged in an ambitious effort to rebuild the library, “and I’ll stay involved in two issues that concern me, homelessness and affordable housing.” And, of course, she’ll be doing a lot of Volkswalking. “I’ve walked in all 50 states and all the Canadian Provinces,” she said, and this summer she’ll walk in eight states when she goes to the Volkswalking Convention. It is inadequate to describe Eddie Park as a realtor with Greystone Realty Group. The Seaside resident is also a carpenter and an artist, often simultaneously. At 16 he was running a framing crew, then spent three years as a Special Forces medic before attending Texas Tech University. He moved to Oregon, worked as a carpenter until he graduated from Portland State University, and began selling real estate in 1993. Park had always been interested in art, and on a trip to Paris, he recalls, “I was stricken by the fact that artists lived on for 1,000 years through the art they produced.” When he got back home to Seaside he enrolled in the first ceramics class Richard COURTESY EDDIE PARK Rowland taught at Clatsop Community Col- lege. Park said, “My connection with art, and Young Eddie Park. the confidence to go further into art, is 100 percent due to Richard.” What comes next is more of the same. Park is getting back into ceramics and, “at my age I want to continue to do any carpentry that I am physically able to do.” He also continues to love selling real estate: “I see it more as a service than a job; there are not too many jobs where you can help people the way I can.” His biggest challenge for the near future, Park said, is “finding the right steward for Big Red, the net shed. “I have a personal connection to it. I had my studio there, as did Royal Nebeker, and I share his vision for the building.”
