John G Kamb Sr.

They called him Zen.

John G. Kamb, the son of a dairy farmer whose life travels took him to the theater of the Korean War in the 1950s and to his ancestral roots in Finland nearly five decades later, always managed to find the path back home.As a fixture in downtown Mt. Vernon, he practiced law for more than 60 years, presided as judge over district and municipal courts for a decade, and served 18 years on the school board – all while helping to raise nine children.But it was his prowess at bridge, gin rummy and other card games, often played with regulars of greasy spoons and lunch counters downtown, that earned him his fabled nickname as the all-seeing, all-knowing, “Zen” – a local legend whose relaxed demeanor and natural gifts guided him to enlightenment.His mastery extended beyond the card table. Kamb’s quiet humility, generosity and wisdom made him a trusted advisor to many who sought his counsel, especially in times of turmoil and need.Kamb died peacefully of natural causes on Dec. 28, surrounded by several of his children and grandchildren. He was 93.

AWAKENING

Born July 20, 1929, to Oscar Floyd and Harriet (Smith) Kamb, John Graham Kamb, the oldest of three children, became a familiar face in Mt. Vernon at an early age.By 9, he hawked newspapers every Saturday downtown to earn spending money – and quickly realized his tag-along kid sister, Harriet, could be a boon for business. Would-be customers seemed to take pity on the little girl pushing the news, he found.“He figured out that when he took her along, he could sell more papers,” said his youngest sister, Margaret Sullivan. “He always knew the angles.”In his teens, Kamb milked cows and worked on pea vining crews on the family farm along the road that bears his family name west of town. He attended Roosevelt and Lincoln Schools before lettering in baseball and football at Mt. Vernon High School. After graduating in 1947, he enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied pre-law and joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.  In 1950, Kamb moved to Spokane, where he dove a book mobile and Brinks armored car by day, while attending night classes at Gonzaga University Law School. Becoming a lawyer “wasn’t a dream, it was a certainty,” he told his grandkids during a 2021 interview. “My grandpa was a lawyer … (and) I didn’t want to be a farmer.”  At a local dance in Spokane, a mutual friend introduced Kamb to Wilhelmina Crogstad, a student at Holy Names College who also had Skagit Valley farming roots. They were merely good friends at first, with Crogstad lining up dates for Kamb with her girlfriends. By 1953, they began dating and married at St. Aloysius Catholic Church at Gonzaga University on Aug.29.  Kamb paused his law studies to serve in the Army during the Korean War. From 1953 to 1955, he trained in California and Texas before being assigned to an intelligence unit in the Far East Command at Camp Zama, Japan. He received the plum post “because I knew how to type,” he said. Kamb was still serving abroad when his first child was born in Mt. Vernon. While in the Army, he learned to play duplicate bridge – what became a lifelong passion and the center of his family travels.

ATTAINMENT

Following military service, Kamb returned to Gonzaga to finish his studies. He started practicing law in 1956 out of the downtown office of his uncle, James G. “Don” Smith, working from the desk once occupied by his late grandfather, Thomas Smith.  To supplement his fledgling law career and expanding family, Kamb took on part-time work as an insurance claims adjuster.  He launched and built his own law firm in the late ‘60s from a building next to the Skagit River, where he practiced for 50 years and eventually was joined by three children.  In 1968, Kamb moved his family downtown, into the three-story colonial house at 3rd and Broad streets built in 1908 by his grandfather.  “My first memory was actually in this house,” he told his grandkids last year, before describing how, at 3, he spied his grandpa opening Christmas gifts.  The house became the epicenter of Kamb’s family and professional life. He and his wife lived there together for 55 years. Kamb’s clients included some of the same farmers, fishermen and other locals who he grew up with. When they couldn’t pay legal bills, he accepted their gifts of salmon, produce and other items, or simply waived his fees.  “He did a lot of work for me and never charged me a nickel,” said longtime Skagit businessman Jim Duffy, who became one of Kamb’s best friends. “He bailed me out of more jams than I'd like to remember. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”  Kamb believed in second chances. While presiding over misdemeanor criminal cases as a part-time judge in district and municipal courts from the early 1970s to ‘80s, he struggled at times with imposing sentences – partly because he knew so many defendants who stood before him.  The proverb, “There but for the grace of God go I,” became a favorite mantra for his judicial philosophy, his wife recalled.  Kamb served as president of the Skagit County Bar in 1972, and in 1991 received the Washington State Bar Association’s highest honor – the Award of Merit – for outstanding service to the legal profession.  He served on the Mt. Vernon School Board from 1972 to 1989, including five terms as its chair, and he personally handed diplomas to four daughters and five sons when each graduated from Mt. Vernon High School.

HAPPINESS

Amid his sprawling career and family life, Kamb managed to gain renown as a bridge player, becoming only the second Skagit County resident to achieve the rank of life master. He won the Kirkwood Trophy in 1967 as the top bridge player for the region spanning Washington, British Columbia and Alaska, and during his playing career, he amassed more than 7,800 points – enough to earn an Emerald ranking as a life master 25 times over.  A near photographic memory and ability to instantly calculate probabilities in his head allowed him “to see plays that I think other people didn’t realize were there,” he said.  Family vacations often centered around the regional bridge circuit, with Kamb loading the station wagon with his kids for trips across the Northwest. He routinely played in – and sometimes won – tournaments in Victoria, Penticton, Harrison Hot Springs, Olympia and Spokane, and participated in yearly regional tournaments in Las Vegas and Hawaii.  His love for bridge was rivaled by a passion for horse racing. He relied on the same mental gifts he used to master card games to craft bets and pick winners.  He traveled to tracks and stakes races nationwide, including several trips to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. His ownership stake in a thoroughbred named Splendacious – a filly that won five consecutive races and drew a ride from Russell Baze, the winningest jockey in North American horse racing history – made Kamb a frequent guest to the winner’s circle at Longacres in 1984.  He was a partial season-ticket holder of the Seattle Supersonics’ games, including during the team’s 1978-79 championship run, and frequently attended Mariners, Seahawks and Huskies games. He traveled to various Olympics, Super Bowls, World Series, Final Fours, college bowls and all-star games, usually with a child – or several – in tow.  He organized summer salmon fishing trips to Campbell River and Nootka Sound, B.C., flew to Europe on the Concorde, voyaged across it on the Orient Express and took a junket with friends and family to the casinos of Monaco.  A 2001 cruise in the Baltic Sea, with stops in Helsinki and St. Petersburg, became a highlight of his many travels. A side-trip to Yttermark in western Finland – the birth village of his paternal grandfather and namesake – introduced him to several cousins he’d never met.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Kamb was preceded in death by his parents, two sons, Robert and Thomas, a daughter, Elizabeth, a granddaughter, Andrea Kidane, two daughters-in-law, Mary (Hayes) and Danielle Bartek and a nephew, Michael Sullivan.  He is survived by Mrs. Wilma Kamb, his wife of 69 years; three daughters, Mary Louise Kamb, of Atlanta, Georgia, Rosemary (and Hagos) Kidane, and Angela (and John) Conijn, of Mt. Vernon; three sons, John Kamb, Jr., of Fir Island; Michael (and Lindsey) Kamb of Burlington, and Lewis Kamb (and Angela Galloway) of Seattle, sisters: Margaret Sullivan and Harriet Lindberg; 19 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.  A funeral mass will be held Thursday at 12:15 p.m. at the Immaculate Conception Church in Mt. Vernon, followed by burial services at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery in La Conner and a reception at the Skagit Golf and Country Club in Burlington.  In lieu of flowers, family members ask donations to be made to the Mt. Vernon High School Scholarship Foundation or the Skagit County Historical Museum.  During the COVID pandemic, Kamb commented to a son: “If I dropped dead tomorrow, I wouldn’t have many regrets.”  After explaining he'd traveled widely, pursued his life passions and spent most of his time with the people he loved, he noted: “What more can you ask for?” 

Words of enlightenment from a true Zen master.