Former County Commissioner Alan Lichter Passes

Alan Lichter celebrates the County’s purchase of the Orcas Landing property in 2009, a project he shepherded while on the Council

Alan Lichter passed away last week at his home on the island.

Lichter was a retired university professor, educated at the University of Washington,  where he earned degrees in English, British and Russian Literature and a Ph.D in American Literature. He also earned national and international experience in conflict resolution and arbitration. As a graduate student at UW, he was elected in 1970 to chair a citizen committee that resolved street clashes between police, merchants, and students. He gained more experience in mediation at his faculty post at the University of Kansas, and as a Fulbright Professor in Poland during the growth of the Solidarity Movement, in 1980.

Upon his retirement to Orcas, he has been a Mercy Flight pilot, transporting cancer patients to mainland medical facilities for treatment; he served as the President of Airhawk Aviators, a non-profit group that provides scholarships for County teenagers seeking to obtain pilot licenses.

With his wife Kate, Alan was a Resource Stewards in Moran State Park, where they hiked trails regularly. He founded the Tough Trekkers men’s hiking club, directed several Readers’ Theater plays, and presented lectures in literature and poetry for the Orcal Library.

“Politics is the place where things get done,” Lichter said of his service on the County Council, from 2004 to 2008. While he was elected in 2004 to a $65,000 Commissioner position, he was willing to continue to serve on the Council at a $34,000 salary, dictated by the 2006 County Charter.

During his term on the Council, Alan led the charge on the county’s vote against the Iraq War, acknowledged with a letter of thanks from President George W. Bush.

He also proposed a comprehensive environmental rehabilitation program. He served as liaison to the Ferry Advisory Committee when it was being challenged by WSF administration, and resigned in protest when its chair, Alex MacLeod, was axed in 2007. He also served as the council liaison to Island Trust, the governing body of the Canadian Gulf Islands.

Alan Lichter came forward to help form the Veterans Advisory Committee, in support of those who serve in the U.S. military. He reminded the council of the continuing costs in implementing the Rosario Resort Master Plan as he continued his opposition to it. His was the sole Council vote against approval of the plan.

Following his service as a Councilman, Alan Lichter continued to serve on the Veterans Advisory Committee. His public involvement continued with the Crossroads Lecture Series Board, and as President of the Orcas Island Library Board of Trustees, a post he was forced by ill health to resign this spring.