Camas’ Bill Jessett ‘led by example’

Michael Jessett remembered his father, William “Bill” Jessett of Camas, as the kind of person, wherever he went, who would make new friends.

“You immediately like him, and he was involved in everything,” Michael said of his late father, who after retiring from the Crown-Zellerbach mill went on to a volunteer career that cemented him into the fabric of the faith and service community of the east county.

Bill Jessett was killed in a car crash Wednesday. He was 88.

His wife, Viola Idell Jessett, first persuaded Bill to pick up donations for a food bank more than 30 years ago, he told The Columbian in 2003.

Bill went on to have a long volunteer career at the Inter-Faith Treasure House of Camas/Washougal.

Michael, one of four children, could barely keep track of all the places his father volunteered and contributed.

“There was so much that he did. Where do you start?”

Bill was a lay reader at the Zion Lutheran Church and St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, worked with the Lions Club, and was an early Walk and Knock food drive organizer.

“He was a kind and generous man, period, right there. Had a strong sense of community, had a strong faith,” Michael said.

For a time, Bill would often put in 60-hour weeks with Treasure House, but had scaled back his involvement starting a few years ago.

“He was very actively involved. He got me involved and I thank him for that,” said Michael, who know works at Treasure House, as well.

Stacy Walters knew Bill through Lions work and other activities, and remembered his modesty.

“Bill’s kind of one of those people — you never really know what he did in life unless somebody told you,” Walters said. “I think Bill’s one of those unsung heroes of the community.”

Peter Anderson, president of the Washougal Lions Club, recalled how Bill, for several years, would dress in outlandish golf attire, knickers and all, for the Washougal Lions’ golf tournament. He would always be the first one to greet new people at club events, Anderson said, and had an easy smile.

“Definitely, he was one that led by example,” Anderson said.

Along with his other volunteering, from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, he’d go on trips to the Walla Walla and Monroe state prisons, where he’d help minister to inmates, Michael said.

Bill grew up in Odessa, a small town in Eastern Washington, during the Great Depression, and said he remembered lean times of bread-and-milk dinners. They never starved, and he told The Columbian he remembered sharing what they could with unemployed men who passed through town and offered to work for a meal. He said that taught him about tending to the less fortunate.

“Closing my eyes to it doesn’t change it,” he said. “All we can do is help those we can help.”

Bill Jessett is survived by his wife, four children and multiple grandchildren and great great-grandchildren.