PORT ANGELES — Unlike Seattle’s Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, the office building for federal agencies at 138 W. First St. in downtown Port Angeles lacks a name.
Former U.S. Marine Terry Roth wants to honor the county’s numerous veterans in general, and a Medal of Honor recipient in particular, by naming it the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building.
Anderson, a private first class in the Marine Corps, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1945 for his actions in the South Pacific during World War II.
Roth wants to ensure Anderson’s legacy isn’t forgotten and to recognize those veterans who have served.
If the federal building is named in Anderson’s honor, he and others could honor the veterans, Roth said.
“We’re not asking anyone for funds, that’s not what this is about,” Roth said.
“We have enough artifacts to change the displays regularly.
“It’s not a monument to the Marines, it’s a home to display the legacy of the men and women who served in the armed forces.”
Roth said he is trying to get the building renamed during its current rehabilitation.
When U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Shoreline, visited Clallam County in November, Roth gave her a letter requesting renaming of the building.
“She told me, ‘I knew this was coming. Don’t you have the highest concentration of veterans in the state?’ ” Roth said.
Murray didn’t commit to the proposal but gave it to her staff to work on, he said.
No one from Murray’s office was available for comment on the request’s status.
The Clallam County Historical Society also agreed to write a letter of support for renaming the building in honor of Anderson.
Sequim High graduate
Anderson was a native of Tacoma who was raised in Agnew and graduated from Sequim High School.
His father, Oscar, owned a sawmill off Old Olympic Highway and worked at sawmills in Port Angeles.
Anderson died Feb. 1, 1944, of wounds suffered on the island of Roi-Namur on the Kwajalein Atoll, located 2,100 miles southwest of Hawaii and now part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
