Kurt Grinnell, a longtime member of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Council, a fisheries and aquaculture knowledgeable with deep household roots on the North Olympic Peninsula, is mourned this week after his loss of life in a wreck of a single car off Mount Nice Street.

Grinnell, 57, CEO of Jamestown Seafood, died Tuesday afternoon.

Tribe chairman Ron Allen mentioned Grinnell, whom he had recognized for 40 years, was coming back from a visit off the peninsula and was a couple of mile from his house on Draper Street when the crash s ‘is produced.

“It was so emotional for therefore many individuals after they realized that he had handed away unexpectedly,” Allen mentioned Thursday.

Grinnell was heading south and left a straight stretch of the highway 1½ miles south of US Freeway 101 round 4 p.m. Tuesday, Brian King, Clallam County Sheriff’s Workplace chief, mentioned Thursday.

King mentioned Grinnell’s 2012 Toyota Camry went via a fence and got here to relaxation in opposition to a tree. He was declared deceased on the scene.

King mentioned the crash was nonetheless underneath investigation.

“It is unexplained at this level,” he mentioned.

Sheriff’s Workplace collision reconstructor Josh Ley mentioned Thursday that Grinnell’s car got here to a cease about 30 toes from the highway.

King mentioned it does not seem medication or alcohol had been concerned and that Grinnell was sporting a seat belt.

County District Legal professional Mark Nichols mentioned in a textual content message Thursday that an post-mortem had been carried out on Thursday and toxicology testing can be performed “within the bizarre course of enterprise.”

Allen mentioned the 17-year-old board member led the tribe’s rebirth of oyster farming and oyster seed manufacturing, launched its hatchery operations, piloted its general aquaculture efforts – and was, fairly merely, a great man.

“He was only a strong tour de power for the tribe,” Allen mentioned.

“He behaved with such integrity, such a powerful character.

“He was a man who at all times cared,” Allen added.

“He wished to know for you and your loved ones what the pursuits had been. It was one of many causes folks liked him. He by no means received private, passionate, or indignant, if you’ll. It was not his model.

Grinnell is survived by his mom, the internationally famend and language-speaking S’Klallam storyteller, Elaine Grinnell; his spouse, Terri, and daughters Loni Greninger and Jaiden Bosick.

He’s additionally survived by a sister, Julie Borde; one brother, Jack Grinnell, two grandchildren and “a ton of nephews and nieces,” Allen mentioned.

Members of the family weren’t accessible to touch upon Grinnell’s loss of life on Thursday.

Grinnell was a great-grandson of Chief S’Klallam Chetzemoka, a signatory of the historic 1855 Level No Level Treaty, who lived within the Port Townsend space, the place a clifftop metropolis park is called after him.

Grinnell, recalling the legacy of Chief Chetzemoka, gave a measure of himself throughout a Jan. 8 Bevan sequence program, “Indigenous Voices: Racial Inequalities and Pure Sources,” held on the College of Washington, accessible on YouTube.

He gave a graphic account of an especially hostile greeting by the S’Klallam folks when Captain George Vancouver first made contact with members of the tribe in 1792, and said that the tribes on the time protected their land from all comers, together with different tribes.

“One factor I’ve realized in my a few years on this planet is that individuals are folks, nobody is ideal, and all folks all through historical past have their darker sides in addition to their darker sides. great and good.

Allen mentioned Grinnell chaired the tribe’s pure assets committee and represented the Jamestown S’Klallam on the Level No Level Treaty Council and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Fee.

Grinnell grew up in Sequim and graduated from Sequim Excessive College, assembly Allen within the early Nineteen Eighties after the tribe turned federally acknowledged and when Kurt, Jack, and Elaine fished commercially.

“All of the pure useful resource stuff, the shellfish, all of the pure useful resource points, that was Kurt’s bailiwick, that was his area of interest,” Allen mentioned.

“It is a huge drawback for us. It is so ingrained within the cultural and conventional customs of the tribe.

Grinnell was additionally family-friendly, which was evident when he began working for the tribe within the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties and suggested youth from Jamestown S’Klallam and Decrease Elwha Klallam.

“It was actually an enormous deal for him, serving to younger folks to mature and perceive the world round them,” Allen mentioned.

When Grinnell spoke about tribal fishing and aquaculture, an financial sector that underneath his management developed right into a multi-million greenback enterprise, using round 50 folks, he at all times regarded to the long run. Allen mentioned.

“He took the identify S’Klallam, Sturdy Folks, very significantly when he informed me about robust authorities and self-reliance and informed me about that imaginative and prescient. He at all times informed me about how fishing must be a part of that imaginative and prescient.

Grinnell was making this level on Tuesday when he attended the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance’s quarterly board assembly at Trout Lodge in Sumner.

Grinnell, the vice chairman of the board, first stopped in Gig Harbor to choose up longtime good friend and colleague within the aquaculture business Jim Parsons, chairman of the board and common supervisor of operations within the Pacific for the Canadian firm Cooke Aquaculture Inc., with which the tribe is in partnership.

“The toughest half about it’s that it is onerous for me to speak about it within the sense of the job,” Parsons mentioned Thursday.

“We talked all the best way again from Trout Lodge to Gig Harbor about life normally, more often than not, as we at all times do,” Parsons remembers, saying goodbye to Grinnell with a date later round 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“Definitely nothing appeared misplaced in any respect.

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Senior Editor Paul Gottlieb could be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at [email protected].