Judith Heath passed away on 27 March, 2025 at St Michaels, Silverdale. She was diagnosed with an aggressive lymphoma and was not able to survive long enough to start any treatment.
Judy was born in Seattle, 6 April 1942, and grew up on the shore of Lake Sammamish in a home built single handed by her stepfather, James White, a food scientist for Carnation-Albers. Her mother, Virginia White PhD, became the math Department Head at Juanita High School, Kirkland. It should be no surprise that Judy followed her mother’s journey and became an educator herself.
When a junior in high school Judy represented our country on an American Field Service scholarship to a small Norwegian village northwest of Oslo in spectacular fjord country.
In the 1960s she attended both University of Washington and also UC Berkeley receiving her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. She had a Washington Lifetime K-12 Teaching Certificate, and also a Hawaii State Elementary Teaching Certificate.
Judy’s first teaching assignment was a classroom of 40-5th grade students in Carnation, WA. That was her initiation into the world of teaching. While there she served on Governor Spellman’s King County Youth Commission as an advocate for teens.
Through the years she taught different grades and different subjects. After moving to Hawaii she again used her talents as a teacher, her last assignment being the 6th grade Science Department Head at Kealakehe Middle School in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. There she met husband Roger Heath who was working as a substitute teacher. They found they enjoyed each other's company and both had an interest in encouraging young students to learn and make decisions to be used later in life. Judy and Roger retired to the mainland (Port Townsend) in 2008.
Judy was also a writer starting at an early age. In her own words - ” I breathed the embers of my spirit to life at night, reading under my covers with a flashlight, taking what oxygen I could from tales of imperfect heroes who overcame dragons, wicked stepmothers, and angry gods.
”I began writing words for myself that mirrored what I could touch, hoping to animate them with the spirit of their namesakes, incantations to invoke realities just out of view; then filled, I wrote words to share with others. I have always written something, in spite—or because of—years of teaching, home businesses, and mothering.” Judy’s greatest literary accomplishment was the publication of her novel Scarstone.
Retirement opened up time to allow a serious study of her genealogical history, and she was a regular at Jefferson County Genealogical Society meetings. Since the mid 1970’s she was an active practitioner of TM meditation having once spent a year at the teacher training course in Vitznau, Switzerland. Her preferred exercises were yoga and spin classes. She loved gardening, canning fruit from her trees, and preparing meals with food grown in her own garden.
Judy’s life was reflected in her ability to make the best of every situation and she encouraged everyone to resolve issues without harming others.
She is survived by her husband, Roger, her sons Lauren Wilson ND (Daeyeon Jun, ND) of Port Townsend and James Wilson of Captain Cook, Hawaii; grandsons Ciel Wilson and Robin Wilson.
A memorial gathering will be held at the Fort Worden Beach Kitchen Shelter 8 June, 2025, 1pm.
