PORT ANGELES — Arlene Engel’s photograph was placed next to a bouquet of flowers where the late Olympic Medical Center commissioner once governed.
The Wednesday night board meeting was OMC’s first since Engel, 91, died of a stroke Christmas Day.
Engel, a longtime Sequim resident, had been an OMC commissioner since 2002.
She also served the mentally ill through her work with the Clallam County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She was a past president of the mental health agency board and was serving as a board member at the time of her death.
Engel received the Clallam County Citizen of the Year award in 1992.
In 2009, she was awarded the Clallam County Lifetime Achievement Award and Red Cross Hero Award.
Commissioner Jim Cammack said Engel had a passion and knowledge about mental illness and the hospital itself.
“She will really be missed,” Cammack said.
Commissioner John Nutter said Engel’s passion gave him insight into mental health issues.
“Her legacy will live on,” Nutter said.
Commissioner Jim Leskinovitch said Engel was “truly a lady from the past era where a lady behaved in a certain way, always above the fray, with class and dignity.
“She was always a speaker for the underprivileged that we had in our community, whether it was mental health or health itself or just better health care for all of us in this country,” Leskinovitch said. “She was just a great lady, a nice person, a great board member. I’m certainly going to miss her.”
Commissioner Jean Hordyk, who knew Engel since the early 1970s, said her friend had “always been an advocate for senior citizens.
“She worked hard for that,” Hordyk said. “And with all the issues that she dealt with personally in her life, she never complained.”
A memorial service for Engel will be held Saturday, Feb. 4, at Faith Lutheran Church, 382 W. Cedar St. in Sequim.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Clallam County, P.O. Box 3416, Sequim, WA 98382.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
