Rick Gary Anderson

Richard Gary “Rick”Anderson passed away on December 23, 2018 of congestive heart failure at his daughter Darcy’s home where he had been living the last few months of his life. Rick was born on September 14, 1941 in Aberdeen, Washington to Richard C. and Elinore (Eddy) Anderson. He grew up in Hoquiam, Washington and was a graduate of Hoquiam High School class of 1959 and attended Grays Harbor Community College. While attending college he told his journalism teacher he wanted to be a writer to which his teacher told him he would never make it as a writer. Ha, ha!!!
  In 1963 he married his college sweetheart Burgene Burgon and they had four children Erik, Erin, Kristie and Darcy. They spent the next 25 years moving around the West Coast while he established his career in journalism at various newspapers. They divorced in 1987 but remained dear friends the rest of his life. He married Monica “Mo” Trinkl in 1988. They loved, laughed and sometimes argued the next 30 years until their divorce in 2018. After which she remained an advocate of his healthcare.
   Rick loved his family and looked forward to gatherings where he could sit back, observe, and tell a few bad jokes. He loved sports and looked forward each year to attending opening day of UW football season with his sons and son-in-law. During his years at the Seattle Times he enjoyed weekly basketball games with fellow staffers even after he “died” for 3 minutes on the court in 1986 and was the only one who knew CPR!
     Rick was a renowned journalist whose career spanned over 60 years. He began as a copy boy for the Seattle Post Intelligencer in 1961. He relentlessly bugged reporters to let him write stories they didn’t want from entertainment to even obituaries. His first position after that was as a Sports Editor in Mount Vernon, then onto the same in Olympia, Hayward, Ca., writing sports at the San Francisco Chronicle, Sports Editor in the Tri Cities before being hired in 1969 at the PI as a headline writer and then night police reporter. A few years later he was given his own five days a week column at the PI. In 1977 he moved on with his column to the Seattle Times until 1987 when he became a staff writer for the Seattle Weekly where he was the first to have 1,000,000 views. He left the
Weekly after 15 years and became a regular
contributor to the L.A.Times, Crosscut.com, Salon.com, Prison Legal News (PLN) among others. He was the recipient of numerous awards during his career including the Haywood Broun Award for humanitarian writing, the Darrel (Bob) Houston Award, many awards from Society of Professional Journalists (SPI), the Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).  He authored the books Homefront-the Governments War on Soldiers (2015), Seattle Vice (2010) that was developed into a burlesque play by Act Theater, Floating Feet and contributed to the books Cascadia (1996) and Best American Crime Reporting (2010).
  Writing was his life in which he spent listening to and observing the world around him while composing stories in his mind. He was zealous in his pursuit of a good story and was known for his writing about underdogs, humor and investigative reporting. He valued his lifelong associations with a multitude of editors and fellow journalists. He admired the writings of columnists Herb Caen, Mike Royko and Jimmy Breslin, authors Jack Olson and Tom Robbins as well as fellow reporters Paul Henderson, Dick Clever and many more.
  Rick was preceded in death by his parents Richard and Elinore (Eddy) Anderson, sister Elynore Jill Elliott, Kelly Elliott and niece Julie Elliott Byrnes. He is survived by former wives Monica “Mo” Trinkl and Burgene Anderson, children Erik (Jammie) Anderson, Erin Anderson, Kristie (Mason) Anderson and Darcy Anderson, grandchildren Gavin Newman, Jack, Kate and Charlie Denger and sister Susan (Arden) Merriman, former sister-in-law Venell (Jim) Wilson , in-laws Jo and Phil Trinkl, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Rick will be greatly missed by his loving family, friends and peers.
  A romantic at heart he was a lifelong fan of Sinatra. His favorite was “Summer Wind”.
       The Autumn wind and Winter winds have come and gone
        And still the days, those lonely days, they go on and on
        And guess who sighs his lullabies through night’s that never ends
         My fickle friend, the Summer wind
         The Summer wind
         Warm Summer wind
         The Summer Wind

     A celebratory wake in Rick’s honor will be held at the Victory Lounge, 433 Eastlake Ave. East in Seattle at a later date, to be announced. Please check back for details.
     The family suggests memorial contributions to Neighborcare at Pike Place Market  and Crosscut.com in support of Northwest non-profit news.

Share memories of Rick at emmickfunerals.com

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Rick Gary Anderson, please visit our floral store.