A lifetime of accolades for volunteering served as a reminder for Esther Heuhslein Nelson, family members say, to keep helping others.

The 1996 Sequim Citizen of the Year and former Sequim Irrigation Festival grand marshal and grand pioneer died earlier this month, and friends and family say she leaves behind a large community service gap.

Her daughter Vickie Crane said her mom’s honors remained in her kitchen for years.

“They meant a lot to her but to her she felt she should do even more,” Crane said.

“If she didn’t have 10 minutes serving others then she should fill it.”

An Agnew native, Esther was born in Port Angeles on May 14, 1928 to Nick and Esther Chambers Heuhslein (Agnew and Fairview family pioneers) and went on to attend Macleay School (now the Sequim Prairie Grange) and graduate from Sequim High School in 1946.

Esther grew up on The Agnew Dairy and Poultry Farm with her parents and brother Russ and sisters Dorothy and Barbara.

During World War II, family members said she filled-in for farmhands off to war. She also played trumpet for the Sequim band and was active in 4-H raising animals and won a trip to Chicago her senior year.

Esther went on to Washington State University in Bellingham after high school but returned in 1949.

She raised her children Nick Larson and Crane, by herself and worked for 32 years with Port Angeles’ Washington State Employment Office.

Crane said her mom raised she and her brother during tough times but helped with her brother’s Boy Scouts and her Campfire Girls’ events and earned her Associate of Arts degree from Peninsula College.

In a 2000 Sequim Gazette profile Esther said, “32 years I worked, and I retired in 1982 and married the next day. The two most dramatic events of my life, and I put them into two days!”

She married Ray Nelson, a retired government employee who died in 2015, and they traveled and went dancing while Esther took up a second career as a volunteer.

“Why volunteer?” she said. “I enjoy telling people about the Sequim area.”

Pride in volunteering

Crane said her mother’s volunteer efforts started with the Sequim Valley Lions Club’s Lady Lions Club. Through the club, she met Neslon, and eventually they married and she became active with the Agnew Helpful Neighbors Club and the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“I think the Chamber came about because she had something to offer them,” Crane said. “In her heart though, she probably thought it had something to offer her, too.”

Shelli Robb-Kahler, executive director of the Sequim Chamber, said Esther volunteered at the Visitor’s Information Center for more than 26 years taking up various roles including training employees.

“She was so dedicated to Sequim and very proud of living in this community,” Robb-Kahler said.

“She wanted people to enjoy Sequim as much as she did.”

Crane said her mother thought of the Chamber as a representation of Sequim.

“It didn’t matter where we went, if they weren’t a Chamber member, by the time we’d left she would have asked them about being a member,” Crane said.

“I realized it was such an honor to be part of the chamber to her. She wanted everyone to belong. She thought of the Chamber as Sequim.”

Bill Littlejohn said as Chamber president and owner of Sherwood Village he got to know Esther more and found her to be a great person.

“With all of her volunteer hours, she did so much for the Chamber. We need more people like Esther,” he said.

Maja Cox, a long-time volunteer like Esther at the Visitor’s Information Center, said they’d both come rain or shine to volunteer on Mondays.

“She became the heart and soul of the Visitor’s Center,” Cox said. “She always made people feel very comfortable … she took pride in Sequim.”

Esther also knew the ins and outs of Sequim quite well, friends say.

“We always thought to ask Esther if we didn’t know something about Sequim. She was a constant source of information,” Robb-Kahler said.

“Even after she couldn’t come in anymore she would often call and check in. We considered her family here.”

Crane said her mom had a large notebook all about Sequim to recommend any and everything in and around Sequim such as the best places to hike.

Esther also helped with the publication of the “Sequim-Pioneer Family Histories” books and she made a notebook about the Sequim area’s school houses.

Judy Reandeau Stipe, the Chamber’s 2017 Citizen of the Year and executive director of Sequim Museum & Arts, said she’s known Esther since she was a child.

“Esther was a kind-hearted and a very proud pioneer of the area she lived in,” Reandeau Stipe said.

For the family hist ories and her schools’ notebook, Esther would conduct research at the museum and Reandeau Stipe said she still uses her schools’ notebook “basically as a Bible because she was such an expert.”

“I just loved her so much,” Reandeau Stipe said. “What a gap this left, by her not being present.”

Service-minded

Along with being named Citizen of the Year in 1996 and serving as a dignitary twice for the Irrigation Festival, Esther volunteered for more than a dozen groups and events behind the scenes and in the forefront including groups like the Sequim Prairie Grange Auxiliary (making eggs for breakfasts), Sequim Senior Center/ Shipley Center, Sequim Lady Elks, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary (calling bingo games).

For the last two years, Esther lived at Sherwood Assisted Living and after her passing she left behind two children, two grandchildren — Pam Schmidt and Bill Schroepfer, Jr., six great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life for Esther Heuhslein Nelson is set for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at Macleay Hall in the Sequim Prairie Grange, 290 Macleay Road. The public is invited to come.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

Esther Heuhslein Nelson volunteered for more than 26 years at the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce training volunteers and helping with various events. Her daughter Vickie Crane said her mother saw the Chamber as Sequim. Sequim Gazette file photo