Earl Cahail; Raconteur, Outdoorsman,

United Nations Civil Servant

A fall, cracked ribs and then pneumonia sent Earl Cahail beyond this life on April 19, 2016 at age 94. He was born in Anacortes to Alice Kellogg, an early-day "school marm" and college graduate, and building contractor/trade unionist, Ira Earl Cahail, descendants of Whidbey Island pioneers. Earl's great-grandparents, Dr. John Coe and Caroline Terry Kellogg, born in the Finger Lakes region of New York, migrated first to Ohio, then crossed the plains on the Oregon Trail. Native Americans paddled Earl's great-grandfather, Dr. Kellogg, known as "the canoe doctor" of Puget Sound, to visit patients, and he was a member of the first Washington State Legislature. Another maternal great-grandfather, the Rev. Isaac Dillon, was one of Oregon Territory's early Methodist ministers. Dr. Kellogg's daughter Alice, after whom Earl's mother was named, was the wife of banker Rolland Denny, infant member of Seattle's founding party of settlers.

Earl was raised in genteel poverty on Guemes Island during the Great Depression, on what he described as a stump farm, where he and his younger sibling Margaret "harvested a crop of rocks every year with our little wagons." Childhood visits to "Aunt Alice and Uncle Rollie" in Seattle at their Windermere mansion, Lochkelden, awed him. Earl's family was met at the downtown waterfront by the Dennys' chauffeured Pierce Arrow, in which they were transported to and from the luxuries of indoor plumbing, central heat and servants.

He attended a two-room schoolhouse (with outhouse) on Guemes, then high school in Anacortes, often rowing to make the Guemes Channel crossing. At his mother's insistence, the family moved into Anacortes so Earl and his sister could participate in after-high school activities. Teen-aged Earl worked for the Black Ball Ferry Line in summer, first loading cars, then as a "galley pot walloper" between Anacortes and Victoria, introducing him to the late-night Canadian recreations of the older crewmen. After his graduation with honors from Anacortes High School in 1939, his father insisted he attend business college in Mt. Vernon, hoping Earl would join him in the contracting business. Earl paid his way by working in a frozen food processing plant and a hotel restaurant kitchen, providing him free meals. A scholarship to Whitman College allowed him to escape the small town world of his youth.

Threatened with the draft, he left college to serve in the U.S. Army during W.W. II, training at Ft. Douglas, Utah. He was deployed to Saipan, where he listened to recordings of the founding of the United Nations and was determined to work for the UN, after experiencing first-hand what world war could be.

He spent five years working in Europe, and in 1954 secured a position in the UN Office of Public Information at its new headquarters in New York. For almost three decades, Earl managed the expanding and usually unruly cadre of broadcast news correspondents and filmmakers, during key moments in history, including visits of countless world leaders and celebrities. High profile moments included lunch with Fidel Castro in 1959, Alfred Hitchcock's effort to shoot a key scene without UN (that would have been Earl's) permission for "North By Northwest" (the security guard who let the film crew into the lobby was fired) and Nikita Khrushchev's memorable shoe-pounding of his General Assembly desk in 1960.

He mentored many young UN staffers, such as photographers Lois Conner and John Isaac, who went on to notable independent careers. Earl left the UN in 1982 (after a one year post-retirement contract), returning to Guemes to enjoy waterfront living and the outdoors - hunting, fishing, motor-biking and sailing his El Toro. Earl championed the environmental protection of the San Juans, as a volunteer shellfish health monitor on Guemes' North Beach, and later as Chair of "Save the San Juans," the successful 1989 campaign to prevent pollution of Samish Bay by industrial seaweed aquaculture. In the 1990s he volunteered with Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, photographing the restoration of preservation projects that became low income and affordable housing.

His first three marriages ended in divorce. "I always meant well," said Earl. He was preceded in death by his elder half-brother Frederick Kellogg Miller and sister Margaret Cahail Walsh. He is survived by his wife Barbara Stenson Spaeth, Seattle, stepdaughter Katherine Spaeth (Matthew Linn), Castro Valley, CA, stepson Eric Stenson, Redmond, and devoted nephew David Hemingson (Tori Morsel) of Bel Air, CA.

A celebration of Earl's life will be held May 6 at 3:30 PM, Epiphany Episcopal Church, 38th and East Denny Way, Seattle, WA 98122. In lieu of flowers, remember Earl by supporting the Anacortes Schools Foundation college scholarship program at http://www.anacortesschoolsfoundation.org or a charity of your choice.

Published by The Seattle Times on Apr. 24, 2016.

Source: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/seattletimes/name/earl-cahail-obituary?id=21183877