Errett Crowther

Errett Crowther, one of South Whidbey’s favorite “gearheads,” died peacefully on Sept. 18 at Enso House of mesothelioma due to exposure to asbestos while working at Todd Shipyards as a young man.

He maintained a cheerful attitude until the end, telling one friend, “I never thought dying would be so much fun.”

Errett, who retired from a career as a mechanical engineer after 25 years with Boeing in 1995, was always available to any friend with an ailing car, truck, water system, or anything that had gears and a motor.

He was born in San Francisco, Calif. in 1940, and grew up in the Puget Sound region. He joined the Navy as soon as he was 18 and served from 1958 to 1962. He then took the skills he learned in the service and became an electrician at Todd. A hard worker, this high school dropout crunched four years of studies into three, taking 17 credits a semester, and graduated from the University of Washington in 1969 with a cum laude bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. He was a member of the engineering honorary society Tau Beta Pi.

After college he married, moved to Phoenix for a job in aerospace, and while there, collected a master’s degree from Arizona State University in his field as well.

After his divorce he moved back to the Pacific Northwest to take a job at Boeing and moved to South Whidbey in 1973.

In his free time during the 1970s he helped many a struggling owner/builder wire his (or her) house, rarely charging for his time.

After working on 747 propulsion, 777 test equipment, and as a manager for Boeing Electronic, Errett took early retirement to devote himself to his real passions in life: horticulture and classic trucks and cars. A member of the Walter P. Chrysler Club and the American Truck Historical Society, Errett delighted in finding crapped-out old Dodge trucks, taking them apart, and totally rebuilding them.

In the early years he painted them with wall paint in improbable colors like mauve and electric blue, but the finishes became more sophisticated with time. You may have seen the beautiful raisin or purple 1940 Dodges he restored on the backroads of Whidbey or at classic car shows. Or perhaps you enjoyed seeing him speeding down First Street during the Soup Box Derbies atop The Royal Flush, with his purple cape streaming behind him. Maybe in his post-retirement persona as Entropy Engineering he helped design your water system.

Errett was self-reliant, honest, hard-working, good-humored, and absolutely convinced that telling a lie was proof of moral bankruptcy. Although he claimed to be a loner, his home — especially in the past months — was filled with friends and family, who cared for him until his death.

Errett is survived by his sister Frances Hannah of Vancouver; his daughters Shauna Scriver of Ellensburg and Katie Scriver of Seattle; his nephews and nieces Craig and Joy Johnson of Freeland, Lysander Johnson of Edmonds, Marshall Johnson of Shoreline, and Jeffrey Annis of Bern, Switzerland; and the very good friends who enabled him to stay in his own home until the last two weeks of his life.

A celebration of his life will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24 at his home. Many thanks to the women at Whidbey General’s Home Health and Hospice, Island Home Nursing, and Enso House for their fine care of our friend.