Val Ogden’s work, spirit remembered

Val Ogden timeline

Feb. 9, 1924: Born in Okanogan.

1942: graduated, Wenatchee High School.

1946: graduated, Washington State University. BA in sociology, magna cum laude. Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Mortar Board.

1946: married Dan Ogden, Dec. 28.

1964-68: Executive director, National Capital Area, Camp Fire (Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.).

1969-74: Executive director, Fort Collins United Way (Fort Collins, Colo.).

1974-75: Executive director, Designing Tomorrow Today (Fort Collins, Colo.).

1975-77: Executive director, Community Education Program (Fort Collins, Colo.).

1978-81: National field consultant, Camp Fire Inc.

1981-84: Executive director, National Capital Area YWCA (Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.).

1984-85: National field consultant, Camp Fire Inc.

1985-89: Executive director, Clark County YWCA (Val and Dan Ogden move to Vancouver).

1990-2002: Washington state representative (Speaker Pro Tempore 1998-2002).

2013-14: Member, Clark County Board of Freeholders.

The words “service” and “integrity” come up so often when people speak of Val Ogden that you’d be forgiven for thinking her name was synonymous with them.

But there was something more, something intangible about the community leader and five-term Washington state representative that made her even more special, friends told the standing-room-only crowd at a memorial at Clark College.

“She just brought an aura of charm and grace — I can’t describe it — every time I was in her presence,” said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a longtime friend. “There was a beauty to Val I can’t describe.”

Ogden died of cancer April 9. She was 90.

More than 450 people turned out for the 90-minute ceremony Saturday afternoon.

“All of us were made better as leaders because of her work,” Inslee said, expressing gratitude to her family and her husband, Dan Ogden.

Inslee declared Dan the “Washingtonian of the Day” and gave him an apple pin as thanks for sharing his wife with the community.

Rev. Mark Gallagher, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Vancouver, also noted the intangible beauty of Val, who along with her husband was a member of the church.

“What I think I appreciate about her is the way she inhabited her life,” Gallagher said. “When in her presence, some of that poise and dignity would rub off on you. You would feel special.”

She touched so many people in so many ways that “we, here gathered, do not know the half of it,” Gallagher said.

And with her husband of 67 years, the couple certainly have left their mark on Clark County and the rest of the nation.

Val was born in Okanogan in 1924 to parents Ivan and Pearle Munson. The family loved being outdoors and were used to a rugged way of life.

When she was 10, her father surveyed the pathway for state Highway 20, North-Cross Highway, and he brought the whole family along on horseback through the wilderness, culminating in a summer-long camping trip at Lake Chelan.

“Val described this experience as ‘fabulous’ and counted it with Camp Fire (USA) as the highlight of her childhood,” Gallagher said. “I think that says something about her.”

In 1942, Val graduated from Wenatchee High School, and in 1946 she graduated from Washington State University with a B.A. in sociology.

“I understand at some point in her college (during World War II), Val spent some time in Florida as a riveter,” Gallagher said.

Val met Dan in college, and the couple married on Dec. 28, 1946.

“Val was the best girl I ever met,” Dan said at the service. “I was always proud to be with her. I looked up to her.”

The couple had three children, Jan, Patti and Dan, and they crisscrossed the country, living in Pullman, then Washington, D.C., and Fort Collins, Colo., as the elder Dan held a slew of government positions, including high-level postings with the Department of the Interior and Department of Energy.

During that time, Val also held a host of positions with nonprofit agencies like Camp Fire USA, the United Way and the YWCA. She was an expert in nonprofits and was often called out to help when branches of Camp Fire or other agencies had problems.

“She certainly found opportunities to lead and serve wherever she went,” Gallagher said.

The two moved to Clark County in 1985, and Val served as the executive director of the Clark County YWCA from 1985 to 1989 before deciding to run for a seat in the Washington Legislature.

Of her 12 years in the House, from 1990 to 2002, the staunch Democrat often said she was most proud of her efforts to improve the lot of the state’s blind students.

During her time there, she pushed to improve the standards for students learning Braille and teachers instructing Braille. She was also a longtime supporter of the Washington State School for the Blind.

“I’ve been so proud to be considered a good friend,” Dean Stenehjem, superintendant of the school, said at the memorial.

In her time in Washington, Val presided on so many state boards and community organizations that it’s hard to mention them all.

“Things that would be outstanding achievements for us, they’re barely noticeable in her life of service,” Gallagher said.

And even after retiring from the Legislature, she was far from done. More recently, she championed an effort to create a center for the arts in Vancouver, and she served on the county’s freeholder board, a volunteer group tasked with writing a charter to govern Clark County, from 2013 until she died.

But it’s the more human things that her family said they’ll remember the most.

Her daughter, Jan Martin, said one of the funniest memories the kids have is from Val and Dan’s 50th wedding anniversary. The family celebrated at a lake, and Val decided to try out a jet ski that the younger generation was enjoying.

“She got on the Jet Ski and encouraged Dad to jump on behind,” Martin said. “Of course, she gunned it.”

She was also an obsessive organizer and planner, Martin said.

“When she learned of her (cancer) diagnosis, she began planning this celebration of her life,” Martin said. “She called Clark College to rent this hall. After she got off the phone she said, ‘Oh, I forgot to tell them when.’ … I said ‘Mom, there are some things even you can’t know.’?”

Val also learned something unusual later in life, said her daughter Patti Hunter.

Val was born on Feb. 9, 1924, but she didn’t always celebrate it on that day.

“Her grandmother thought (Val’s) birthday was the 11th, so they’d been celebrating it on Feb. 11 forever,” Hunter said with a laugh. “She got her birth certificate maybe 10 years ago and said, ‘Oh wow, I’ve been celebrating it on the wrong day this whole time.'”

When Val discovered her birthday was actually Feb. 9, at the age of about 80, she decided to double dip and celebrate it on both days, Hunter said.

“Oh, I think she was allowed to do that,” Hunter said.

At the service, Dan said he truly appreciated the outpouring of support from the community. He said her memory brought the song “Some Enchanted Evening” from the musical South Pacific to mind.

“Once you have found her, never let her go,” he said, quoting the song. “We have now lost her, and we must let her go.”