Eugene Kenneth Underwood

On July 12, 1941, Eugene Kenneth Underwood entered this world to be greeted by his parents Kenneth graduated from Boston University, the family moved to Nebraska for 1 year, then further west to Orofino, ID. In Yakima, WA he started school. Colfax was next, Gene finished elementary school and into 7th grade. Besides preaching, his father was a volunteer firefighter and together they began an interest in electronics and ham radio. Gene and his father studied and passed their first ham tests with Gene’s license arriving on his 13th birthday. They had consecutive calls of W7AKA and W7AKB.

Gene finished his high school in Kennewick and at times delivered as many as 4 routes of newspapers. During harvest time, he worked for Jolly Green Giant in Dayton, WA.

Moving with his parents to Bellevue, he soon found employment with Boeing at age 19. The Ham station in the basement of the home brought many thrilling communication contacts including working MARS stations to help service men communicate with their families and the 1964 Alaskan earthquake.

Attending the fellowship group at University Temple Methodist, he found his future wife and changed her first name upon meeting her in October 1963 and it took 14 months to change her last name. They had a wonderful 47 years together. As he told his son, Bruce, he was the finest thing to come out of his marriage and he was a very proud father.

He completed 17½ years as a volunteer firefighter for King County District 25. He saved many lives as an EMT and likely many more through his hundreds of CPR classes.

He retired from Boeing in 2003 with 40 years’ service mostly as an Experimental Electronic Technician.

Together with Fran, he taught amateur radio classes at the Red Cross for 10 years. Public services events he chaired included: 10 years for the American Lung Association, 5 years with off road racing, 20 years for Cascade Bicycle group, 25 years with RAMROD and for the last 13 years coordinating the Ham Radio for the Seattle Marathon. The final one completed on November 27, 2011.

He finally got his daughter 10 years ago when Melissa married Bruce. He also enjoyed becoming a Grandpa to both Scott(8) and Connor(6).

His life ended at 2:15 on Thursday, December 8. His big heart wore out and he left this world better knowing he helped so many others.

Arrangements entrusted to Sunset Hills Funeral Home, Bellevue, WA.