UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FRIDAY HARBOR LABS

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Ellis gift celebrated

Photos by William Calvin

posted 05/05/02
More than 90 people gathered on rainy Shaw Island yesterday (May 4, 2002) to celebrate a "spectacular piece of philanthropy." A naming dedication for the Frederick and Marilyn Ellis Biological Preserve was held on the 579 acre preserve. Over the years, Dr. Fred Ellis and his late wife Marilyn had given the land to the University of Washington. After his wife's death in 2000, Ellis asked that the site be named after her.

The Cedar Rock Biological Preserve , 480 acres donated by Bob Ellis, is almost contiguous to the Fred and Marilyn Ellis preserve. The two properties give the university 1,000 protected acres on Shaw Island.

The land will be used by Friday Harbor Laboratories as a site for research and education. Students from the Landscape Architecture program of the UW School of Architecture, the School of Oceanography and Fisheries, the Department of Botany, Department of Zoology and others conduct research on the Preserve, its Intertidal land and its Subtidal waters. One example: doctoral student Kevin Britton-Simmons, is investigating the impact of the introduced seaweed Sargassum muticum on native kelp communities in the shallow subtidal habitats of Shaw Island. Wiithout access to a preserve, some of his research wouldn't be possible because some of the species involved are commericially harvested.

During the ceremony, seven-and-a-half year old Tamzin Atkins took notes as U.W. Regent Bill Gates, Sr. thanked her grandfather for the spectacular philanthropy. Connie Kravis, U.W. vice president thanked Ellis on on behalf of the university president. Chairman of Friday Harbor Labs Development and Advisory Board Barbara Cable read excerpts of letters from Gov. Gary Locke, Rep. Rick Larsen, Senator Maria Cantwell and Friday Harbor Mayor Gary Boothman. State Senator Harriet Spanel, state Rep. Jeff Morris, County Commissioners Darcie Nielsen and Rhea Miller attended the ceremony. Ellis' sister, a niece, four of his children and their families were in attendance. UW FH Labs faculty, staff, students and community members rounded out the group.

Robert Schwartzberg, director of development of UW Friday Harbor Labs, shared Ellis biography.

He was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Reed College in Portland with majors in Astronomy and Philosophy. As the Edward C. Pickering Memorial assistant in Astronomy at Harvard College Observatory he studied variable stars. He earned his MA at Harvard.

During World War II he volunteered for a British Medical Unit as a medic and was sent overseas to Burma from 1944 to 1946. While serving as a medic he developed a knack for regularly dodging sniper fire. His experiences gave him a first hand experience in the horrors of war. To quote Fred, "Nothing is as savage as the damage of war to the human body."

On his way back from Burma, his unit was to fly to Portland by way of Calcutta, London, and New York and then the west coast. When his commander gave him the option of finding another way home, he signed on as a crewmember of a Canadian Liberty ship. He spent 97 days on the ship starting off as a coal passer. He was then promoted to stoker, then 3rd Engineer and finally ship's doctor. Asked how he went from shoveling coal to becoming ship's doctor. Ellis said it was mainly because while in Burma he had accumulated a vast amount of penicillin. He finally landed in St. Johns, New Brunswick and made his way back to Portland.

Fred returned to Harvard and earned his Ph.D in history and philosophy in 1948. He went on to teach at the University of Illinois, Tufts University, University of Minnesota, University of Western Washington, University of British Columbia and Harvard.

Fred has always kept up his interest in Science and Astronomy. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science and Sigma Psi, the Scientific Honor Society.

Locally, Fred ran for County Commissioner…he lost but said it was an education.

Fred serves on the board of the San Juan Preservation Trust, the board of the Friends of the San Juans, Board of the ACLU, Washington and Massachusetts affiliates.

Fred is the proud father of five daughters and one son, and grandfather of seven children.

Dr. Dennis WIllows, director of Friday Harbor Labs, said the existence of the preserve provides a tremendous catalyst for research. He praised the persistence, focus, and vision concerning environmental issues by Marilyn and Fred Ellis.

Ellis told the crowd, the event was one of the high points in his life. He described his first trip to the bay in 1936 with his father. They entered slowly on a foggy day. "I remember, the landscape slowly opening up. I had a sense of what it must have been like when the Spaniards came, " he said. His father told him "This is too special to let this go to pot."

He began buying property on Shaw Island before WWII despite advice from his fellow teachers to invest in Skagit Valley fields instead.

Over the course of the years, he and his wife combined 18 separate properties into the 579 acres. "It is a very comforting thought to realize this will go on and on," he said.

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