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The following is a sports column by Anacortes native Wallie Funk, a great community newspaper publisher and unabashed Anacortes High School sports fan. It is of particular interest given that the AHS boys team is currently involved in post-season play — 70 years from the year of the basketball game featured here. By Wallie Funk, […]

Retired photojournalist Wallie Funk autographs a copy of “Pictures of the Past,” a just-published book of columns he wrote for the Anacortes American. The American this week celebrated its 125th anniversary. The book was edited by a team from the Anacortes Museum, also acting as publisher.

This heritage sign on the Tommy Thompson Trail features three photographs from the days when the Burlington Northern Railroad served the community, linking Fidalgo Island industry to the mainland. Among businesses featured are the Cavanaugh & Sons Shingle Mill, Rogers Sawmill & Box Factory and the Anacortes Glass Company. Photos on the display were provided […]

It was my pleasure Wednesday to photograph this phenomenal group of Anacortes High School alums, Class of 1940! Among those pictured here at their 73rd reunion are (l. to r.) Ethel Barcott, Dr. Bud Strom, Ed Gilden, Catherine Foss, Lenora Storme, Maxine Mondhan, Wallie Funk, Jeanette Summers and Larry Trulson. Wallie once co-published the Anacortes American with […]

Anacortes native Duane Berentson, 84, died peacefully on July 5, 2013 in Mount Vernon. I knew him as Uncle Duane, my dad’s brother. Whether he realized it or not, he was an important role model for me, especially in my young life. Duane bought me my first baseball mitt, encouraged me as a college journalism student … and […]

Circulated today to all Anacortes School District residents was the newsletter called “Currents,” a periodical the district publishes to share information with the community. Included in this issue are several articles related to the subject of student transitions from elementary to middle school, and middle school to high school. Also featured are Anacortes High School […]

These 1974 (or ’75) photos represent a major sentimental journey in terms of my photography career. I was in Pullman, a senior with an opening in my schedule, so I signed up for a photography course. I borrowed my friend Keith Thurman’s 35 mm camera and on this occasion, headed for an amateur hockey game […]

This 1890 global perspective, featuring Anacortes as the central point of travel via ship and rail, seems preposterous today. But when it was distributed in 1890, one year before the city was incorporated, visitors to the island city included Great Northern Railroad executive James J. Hill. He spent four days in the Northwest “shopping” potential […]

Among birthday surprises received by 90-year-old Wallie Funk Sunday was an All-American City banner re-created by the Anacortes Museum and presented by museum representative Bret Lunsford. Funk and former Anacortes Mayor Bud Strom were instrumental in this city’s distinction as an All-America City in 1962.

There were happier times in public service, as evidenced by this photo of Washington State Governor Booth Gardner in August 1986. The governor has obviously delivered a joke or quip that won the appreciation of community newspaper publisher Wallie Funk (seated). I don’t recall the details of the event, but notes on the back of […]

Newspaper publisher and art aficianado Jack Darnton (left) was on hand Friday morning as the “downtown pig” outside Insights Gallery was loaded onto a city truck for the short trip to its new home. The pig, composed of miscellaneous steel bits welded together, caught the eye of Wallie Funk. Given the “industrial” connection, Funk concluded […]

Long-time arts patron Wallie Funk was among judges at this year’s juried art show at the Anacortes Arts Festival. Also pictured here are two art pieces, and a father introducing his children to the wonderful world of fine art. The blue dress was created by Ries Neimi.