PORT ANGELES — Gordon “Gordy” Sexton, the co-founder of the first pizza place on the North Olympic Peninsula, has died at the age of 81.
The Gordy’s Pizza & Pasta co-founder died of cancer at Sequim Health & Rehabilitation on Thursday.
A celebration of life is planned at 11 a.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church, 139 W. Eighth St., with a reception to follow at the church.
He and his wife, Patricia Sexton, founded the Port Angeles pizza restaurant 51 years ago in 1963.
“People [here] didn’t know what pizza was, couldn’t pronounce it, didn’t know what to do with it,” said his widow, who is also 81.
“Now, it’s a household word.”
The two moved to Port Angeles from Olympia, where they had operated a Pizza Pete with other family members, and opened a franchise in that chain on First and Peabody streets in a building that doesn’t exist anymore, she said.
Later, they moved to the restaurant’s present location at 1123 E. First St., which first they rented and then purchased.
Gordy’s Pizza
Circa 1972, they went independent with the name of Gordy’s Pizza.
“He wanted to see his name up in lights,” Patricia said.
“When Gordy wanted to put on the charm, he could make you laugh, laugh, laugh,” she added.
“All three of our children also have that wit.”
Two of their children — Randy Sexton and Cynthia Dawson — became co-owners of Gordy’s 31 years ago.
Their other daughter, Jane Sexton, is a marine scientist who works in Seattle.
Gordy’s has always been a family business, Patricia said.
She and her husband couldn’t afford baby-sitters, so the children came to work with them, helping to grind cheese and cutting bread.
Now Randy’s wife, Tina, does accounting for the restaurant, and granddaughter, Crystal Gay, is kitchen manager.
The other three grandchildren — Audrey Johnson, Sky Sexton and Mary Dawson — also have worked at the place, as has Dawson’s husband, Shawn.
“Our family is a working family,” Patricia said.
Ed Bedford, founder of Port Angeles-based Bedford’s Sodas, has known the Sexton family since they moved to Port Angeles.
“I was there when he opened the first restaurant, with the kids doing their schoolwork there and working hard at night,” Bedford said.
“He was just a complete gentleman, that’s exactly what he was.
“He had integrity and honesty and gave to the community.
“He was a true man of his faith. He was a class act.
“The kids have done a wonderful job of carrying on the tradition.”
Romance in 1951
Gordy and Patricia began dating in 1951 while she was attending Centralia College.
She describes him as a hard-working person who worked as a newspaper carrier while growing up during the Great Depression.
“He loved to achieve a goal, and his goal was to make money,” she said.
In 1954, while she was earning a nursing degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, they wed in Winlock.
Gordy was working at a service station there that was owned by her father.
Later, they moved to Olympia, and with his brother, Bill Sexton, Gordy opened a pizza place.
The couple moved to Port Angeles because of the opportunity offered by the lack of pizza on the Peninsula and to be close to their daughter’s doctor, Dr. William Duncan of Sequim, who successfully treated her congenital hip problem.
The daughter, Dawson, who eventually became co-owner of Gordy’s, now at 54 has cancer and spends much of her time making sweaters for the Knit for Kids program of Guidepost Ministry.
“She’s a Christian, a strong point,” her mother said. “And Gordy was, too.”
Her husband enjoyed working in wood, making the water wheel outside their home and doing a lot of the remodeling in the restaurant himself.
He also made the stained glass at the eatery, she said.
And “ he was a very good golfer. He had two holes-in-one at the Peninsula Golf Course.
“He enjoyed his life up here on the Peninsula,” she said.
Her husband had a successful kidney transplant at Virginia Mason Hospital & Medical Center in 2010, she added.
In lieu of flowers, she asked that people give donations to the Virginia Mason Foundation in Seattle, P.O. Box 1930 D1-MF, Seattle, WA 98111.
Services are through Drennan-Ford Funeral Home of Port Angeles, www.drennanford.com.
________
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
