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Today's Featured Biography

 
Rich Compton

Well, now that I think about it, I guess a few things have happened since leaving KHS. After barely, and I do mean barely, graduating, I hung out in the Tri-Cities for a few years, mostly working odd jobs and partying. I had fun I suppose, perhaps even a bit too much fun and it is likely that none of this was the best use of my time. That isn't to say that it was the worst use either. It was all good fun for awhile but eventually drifted away from that towards more reasonable activities, mainly working, hiking and climbing.

Somewhere about 1974 I thought maybe I should give college a shot and ended up at Columbia Basin for a couple of quarters. College ended up agreeing with me so from there it was off to Western up in Bellingham in the fall of 1975. I met my wife Connie at WWU and we were married in 1977. Two college students getting married halfway through their time as undergraduates is not normally advisable but given that we are still married I guess we are none the worse for the wear. I graduated from WWU in 1980 and then it was off to Thunderbird (or the more ponderously named American Graduate School of International Management) in Phoenix, Az for an MBA. In June of 1983 I gladly left the horrendous heat of Arizona for the more rational climate of Seattle.

After landing back in Seattle, I took a job at what was once a local community savings bank, Washington Mutual. I ended up staying with these folks until January of 2007 when I got tired of the incorporated insanity that had come to pervade what was once a great company. In a strange twist of fate, I agreed to return to WaMu in June of 2008 and found myself working in downtown Seattle. This was a decision that I will never regret as it put me in a perfect position to watch the high drama of a bank crumbling in disgrace when, in September 2008, WaMu attained the dubious honor of being the largest bank failure in US history. Suffice it to say that those were some interesting days.

I ended up being picked up by Chase and worked for them until February of 2010 when the corporate admin functions were moved back to Ohio. After 27 years in the banking arena, I chose to leave banking behind and stay put in the Seattle area.

It seems like a long time ago now but we had our first child in 1989 and our second in 1992. Both are now in college, my son Tyler is just about to graduate from Humboldt State down in California, my daughter Terra is in her first year at Western.

Just like any other family out there it seems like we generally manage to keep ourselves busy. Our family activities have always centered around camping, hiking, ski trips and road trips so we typically find something interesting to do. If we are not out and about I am almost always involved in some sort of woodworking project, woodworking being a lifelong hobby of mine. Somewhere around age 40 I took up golf, a big time waster but enjoyable nonetheless and something I hope to keep doing for years.

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