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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2018
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
REMEMBERING
TOM CHATTERTON
W
hen Seaside’s Mary Blake
read a remembrance of Tom
Chatterton at the Seaside City
Council this fall, observers may have
been unaware of his long history with
and contributions to the city.
Chatterton, who died Aug. 5, was a
renaissance man, a builder, landscaper,
volunteer, preacher, counselor, adviser,
mentor and more. Many of Seaside’s
public spaces bear his mark.
He was a member of the South Clat-
sop Interfaith Partnership, bringing
together representatives of the secu-
lar and spiritual communities. He was
a member of the city’s
landmark commission
and the public library
siting committee, and
served on the tree board
from its inception until
2011.
“He volunteered
R.J.
thousands of personal
MARX
hours over his quarter of
a century commitment,”
recalled Mary Blake, former longtime
director of the Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District. ”Without question it
was a labor of deep love.”
The Daily Astorian
Seaside’s Tom Chatterton is
remembered for his spiritual
message and love of the city.
The Daily Astorian
Keiko was a fan favorite at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Tom Chatterton led a memorial service in the whale’s honor.
whimsical wit,” Blake said.
They worked so well together, he
helped transform a crumbling unused
Scout hut into a community struc-
ture that today hosts civic and non-
profi t groups at no charge, known as the
“Mary Blake Playhouse,” intended to
provide common areas where people can
visit and get connected.
No detail was too small — Chatter-
ton selected Idaho quartz for the lay-
ered rock fountain, designed so the
quartz’ mica content gives the fountain
a slight iridescence when the morning
sun shines. He even knew what time of
day was best for viewing. Shrubs, plants
and trees were “chosen in a nursery in
the foothills of Mount Hood,” he said
at the time, noting that the grounds fea-
tured several species not often seen on
the North Coast.
The remarkable landscaping was
enjoyed by the community.
“It was a source of pride for all,”
Blake said. “It also was something that
went through each season with great
beauty and introspection. Tom was very
spiritual. He connected with the divine
through nature providing sacred spaces
throughout our campus.”
A love for animals
“Not only did Tom volunteer with
us,” Blake said. “He shared his talents
and skills with others. He would per-
form commitment ceremonies, wed-
dings, celebration of life gatherings
for friends and community members.
As well as services for our four-legged
members of our families.”
Perhaps his most legendary moment
was when he conducted a service for
Keiko the whale.
In January 1996, Chatterton sat mes-
merized as he watched Keiko the orca
being airlifted to the Oregon Coast
Aquarium in Newport, where the Inter-
national Marine Mammal Project built
a state-of-the-art rescue and rehabilita-
tion facility.
When Keiko died in December 2003,
Chatterton was moved to write a poem
as a memorial, which he sent to the
aquarium. He was contacted by Patrick
Helbling, acting president at the aquar-
ium, who told him that the aquarium had
received many phone calls and emails
about the whale’s death. Chatterton sug-
gested the remembrance service and was
later asked to offi ciate.
More than 700 mourners turned out
in Newport, as Keiko’s former han-
dlers recalled his love of games and
gentleness.
Animals large and small were his
passion. Chatterton was described as
sharing his home with three cats and
Buckley, a 6-year-old Lhasa Apso. “I
think we’re hardwired by creation to
deal with nature’s creatures on a deep
level,” Chatterton told a reporter.
Chatterton served as an independent
chaplain and offered services for normal
“passages-of-life events” and as a sup-
port in times of crisis. For many people,
those times of crisis involved pets.
One of Chatterton’s goals was to
bring a pet cemetery to Clatsop County.
“Some dear friends of mine lost their
13-year-old cocker spaniel about fi ve
years ago,” Chatterton told the Seaside
Signal. “She went into a grieving period
and did not come out of the house for
seven weeks. I thought, who responds to
people who are hurting over an animal?”
His dream was to create a Clatsop
County pet cemetery — alas, never ful-
fi lled — and to expand his ministry to
include veterinary chaplaincy.
Lasting legacy
Oregon Coast Aquarium
The memorial in front of Keiko’s exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
Landscape dreams
But it was as a landscaper and
designer that Chatterton ultimately left
his mark on Seaside.
Within a year of moving to Sea-
side in 1992, he ran an ad in the local
newspaper inviting individuals inter-
ested in forming a Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship.
Within a year, the fellowship was
formed. Chatterton had a deep spiri-
tual passion and regularly attended other
churches, including the Catholic and
Lutheran congregations. He wrote about
his faith in columns in both the Signal
and The Daily Astorian.
It was in the city’s parks, nooks and
crannies that his mark is the most evi-
dent. He fi lled in the spaces with his
own majestic vision.
“The district, with the help of the
city, just completed the construction
of the Seaside Youth Center,” Blake
The Daily Astorian
This rock garden area near the Sunset Aquatic Facility was designed and installed by Tom
Chatterton.
said. “We had this beautiful building
but it was stark naked! No landscaping
whatsoever!”
Chatterton volunteered to design a
landscaping plan and Blake agreed to
support it with resources.
“That started our remarkable 25-year
relationship,” she said.
His work was so good it grew to
include the entire district, she said, from
design to mentoring kids on how to pick
out boulders to plant materials.
“Nothing was done without Tom’s
steady guidance, landscape mastery and
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation
District board member Michael Hin-
ton said in November that “I fi rst met
(Chatterton) through my work with the
park district and his emergence as a vol-
unteer during the early days of the dis-
trict, as he designed the landscaping in
and around the pool and youth center as
well as the community center.
“He strove to maintain and enhance
his work into the memorial garden near
the skate park,” Hinton said.
Chatterton continued to work with
rec district director Skyler Archibald.
“He had strong convictions on all
things landscaping, but was an amazing
volunteer who never expected anything
in return for his service,” Archibald
said. “That area doesn’t have all the
exact same features as it did when he
designed it, but we’ve tried to keep the
essence of the design while making the
building a bit more visible from the
road.”
Archibald said he and Chatterton
had been working together on a piece
of art by the skate park to honor Jacob
McCulloch, a volunteer fi refi ghter, Sea-
side High School grad, skater and surf-
boarder who was killed in a car accident
in 2005.
Other projects included design of a
columbarium for the American Legion.
An “ambitious” plan for a veterans
memorial for Broadway Park reached
the engineering phase, but remains an
unfi nished goal.
“His failing eyesight and health
impaired his ability to keep up with his
love,” Hinton said.
City councilors Tom Horning and
Tita Montero proposed that a tree
of “appropriate species and size” be
planted in his memory at Cartwright
Park.
That appropriate species was a red-
wood — a sturdy giant.
“He was deeply engaged to help
improve the quality of life for all of us,”
Blake said. “He will forever remain
alive in our hearts, memory and beau-
tiful naturescapes he envisioned and
planted.”
R.J. Marx covers South County for The
Daily Astorian and is editor of the Sea-
side Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.