Dodie Gann, Photo courtesy Jeff Corwin
From San Juan Preservation Trust (www.sjpt.org)
An island legend has passed. Dodie Post Gann, a lifelong adventurer, accomplished pilot, inductee in the U.S. Ski Team Hall of Fame, land conservation leader and the San Juan Preservation Trust’s earliest benefactor, died peacefully at home on Christmas Eve following a truly remarkable life.
Born on September 10, 1922, Dodie and her husband, the renowned novelist Ernest Gann, purchased their 800-acre Red Mill Farm on San Juan Valley in the 1960’s. In a series of transactions beginning in 1980 and ending in mid-2012, Dodie and Ernie ensured that their farm would remain protected in perpetuity by the San Juan Preservation Trust. As Dodie recounts in a video produced by the Preservation Trust a few years before her death, land conservation became personal as she settled into her new island home. “If you have something like this, you don’t want to lose it” she would say. “It’s the natural thing to want to save it forever.”
Dodie Gann was a friend and inspiration to so many of us that call the San Juan Islands our home, and her unassuming manner and soaring spirit are inextricably woven into the San Juan Preservation Trust’s organizational identity. It is both humbling and fitting to know that Dodie’s longtime home – her beloved Red Mill Farm – will soon become the permanent office for the San Juan Preservation Trust. From her little farmhouse that looks down over San Juan Valley, we shall continue the work that she began.
Per Dodie’s wishes, there will be no public memorial service.
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