George Ervin Lamb

1932 - 2017

George Ervin Lamb

George Ervin Lamb passed away peacefully on the afternoon of April 3, 2017 in the arms of his family. George was born November 21, 1932 in Topeka, Kansas to George William Lamb and Grayce Lamb (nee Jones). He attended Yale University on a four-year scholarship and upon graduation went to work for the California Division of Highways as a civil engineer.

He was drafted in 1955 and served 21 months in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, teaching at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia and then serving as an Engineering Intelligence Research Specialist for the Army Map Service in Washington D.C.

In 1958, while getting his Master of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Washington, he joined a day trip for new students to the San Juan Islands. There, in the back of a pickup truck, he met the love of his life, Linda Mary Harris, a local journalist and UW graduate whose mother Minnie had organized the trip. This first meeting had a supporting and supportive cast that included George's sister Donna Lee and Linda's nephew Mark D. Simpson. It was the beginning of a lifetime together.

George and Linda were married at University Congregational Church in 1960 and within two weeks of their wedding had moved to Guatemala, where George worked as a soils engineer for Brown & Root Overseas while Linda performed as part of an expatriate theater company and filed stories about their adventure for the Seattle Times. Their two-and-a-half years in Guatemala set the tone for their marriage: a devotion to exotic environments and to each other. They returned many times over the decades, and remained in close touch with the friends they met during this golden period.

When they came back to the States, George worked first for the Foundation Test Service in Washington, D.C. and then at a succession of engineering and soils firms in the Seattle area where he built a reputation for high character, deep expertise and honesty. He eventually owned and managed Cascade Geotechnical, a soils engineering outfit in Totem Lake that employed several dozen. The smoothness of countless local highways serves as quiet attestation to his work ethic and high standards.

After retiring, he continued to work as a consultant and expert witness all over the western states. He played a major role in tunnel construction for the Metro Red Line in Los Angeles in the 1990's and worked on the upgrade of the Panama Canal. His car was easy to locate in a parking lot, due to the Canal Zone hardhat he always kept ready on the parcel shelf under the back window.

George was quick to smile and laugh, and had a rare exuberance about him. His go-to exclamation, whether while 'breezing up' aboard the family sailboat La Linda or as a home-cooked meal arrived at table, was "Oh, joy!" He shared his enthusiasms with his sons-teaching them to canoe and sail, just as his father had taught him.

He was a role model extraordinaire-demonstrating that marriage could be a continuing source of vitality and joy, and that one's working life could be the site of high adventure. It is a testament to the strength of his lived principles that each of the four sons has sought to emulate George in their own way. He is dearly missed, but his exemplarity keeps him present in the lives of his friends and family.

He is survived by his sister Donna Lee Simmons of Camarillo, California; his wife Linda; their four sons, George William, Stephen, Mike, and Mark; and ten grandchildren: Brannon, Will, Lars, Jacqueline, Walker, Sebastian, Axel, Oliver, Oscar and Eden.

Remembrances may be made to the Critical Care Unit of Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland-the care he received there was exquisite, surrounded by people of enormous depth and character: http://www.evergreenhealthfoundation.com/

OR, to the Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center of Western Washington, a service hub devoted to an inclusive and accessible world: http://www.hsdc.org/giving/ways-to-give/