Cheryl Ennor

Active Shoreline area hike leader, yoga enthusiast, sports team enthusiast (baseball, basketball, football, ), community gardener, world traveler, and lifelong learner Cheryl Ann Ennor succumbed to pneumonia May 27, 2024, after a determined, but unsuccessful, recovery from a severe back injury incurred in November. Born June 13, 1944, in Portland, Oregon, to Lucile and Howard Ennor, Cheryl grew up in Richland, Washington. In 1961, her family moved to Vienna, Austria, where her dad worked for 15 years as the Director of Budget and Finance at the International Atomic Energy Agency. Cheryl blossomed in the international culture, which deepened and expanded her pursuit of learning and satisfying her curiosity-as reflected in her active lifestyle, many creative endeavors, "book club worthy" collection of reading materials, and photography pursuits over the years. She graduated from the American International School in Vienna in 1962, attended university in Paris, France, for two years, then worked for the U.S. Armed Forces at Chiemsee and in Munich, Germany. She hitchhiked throughout Europe with her "pastor-blessed thumb" before returning to the Pacific Northwest, where she earned a degree in Economics at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Cheryl first invested her expertise working with a great group of colleagues at a downtown Seattle actuarial firm. She took a six-month leave of absence in the early 70s to travel overland in canvas-covered trucks, first from London south to Johannesburg, then from Salzburg east through Asia. She spoke German and French, and learned a smattering of foreign languages (Arabic, Farsi, Swahili) to support people-to-people interactions during her travels, during which she traded flannel pajamas for a Masai spear, ordered and wore a burka in keeping with traditions of the lands through which she passed, and generally enjoyed the diversity of welcoming dialog and family rituals and hospitality shared along the way (although there were some unnerving dramatic moments, too). She ended her actuarial career when the company persisted in favoring corporate interests over those of her clients; she was replaced by three men. Cheryl worked briefly for two banks and a pension services firm, while pursuing a second degree in medical prosthetics at UW, prior to devoting fulltime attention to working with another great group of colleagues at Costco, in Accounting and other roles, until she retired.
Cheryl was an avid outdoors person, hiker, cross-country skier, and team sports fan (baseball, basketball, football ). She loved the stimulation of Seattle's offerings of cultural pursuits, theater, symphony, museums, PacSci, exhibitions, and speaker presentations across a full range of topics, and strongly supported many of them. Always one to raise the bar for what a single person can accomplish on her own, Cheryl was an extremely independent DIYer, as indicated by her many creations, creative endeavors, and associated craft supplies, tools, and how-to books-related to photography (using darkrooms in her neighborhood when not in her basement), pottery-making, 3D card-making, gardening, plumbing, electrical work, reupholstery, painting, doll-making, sewing, knitting, needlework, ad infinitum. She shared many of her interests with her nieces in Richland, enriching and expanding their appreciation of assorted adventures and shared fun and discovery. She loved skydiving for the exhilaration of the jumps, the bird's eye views, and the peaceful quality of the fall. In more recent years, she discovered the rush of ziplining. Cheryl also let her depth of environmental concerns, naturalist knowledge, and insatiable curiosity punctuate many of the hikes she led through north Seattle neighborhoods for a Shoreline hiking group that memorialized her in early June, and she volunteered at the Shoreline Community Garden for the Food Bank. Said one friend, "It was never a matter of whether she could keep up with us, but rather whether we could keep up with Cheryl." Sadly, her accident deprived her of her three-miles-a-day regimen and easily an additional 10 years of life. Nevertheless, she claimed she was thoroughly enjoying revisiting her memories while bed-ridden, because she had led such a remarkable and full life. Indeed!
And from doctors and staff Z to A, Cheryl enjoyed the straight-shooting communication and loving support of committed teams at Harborview who looked forward to working with her every day during her long stay cheering her on, swapping stories, being straightforward about options and preferences, and finding humor and joy along the way. One hospital roommate really appreciated Cheryl's spunky attitude and how she kept the doctors and staff on their toes. Again, raising the bar for the positive give and take of team work and clearly stated mutual expectations. Thanks all, for your expertise and commitment to providing patient care!
Cheryl was preceded in death by her mother, father, and dear younger brother Gary. She is remembered fondly by Gary's widow Pat and family, her older brother Dale and his wife Mari-Anne, and younger sister Susan and her husband Don Bihl and family. Donations may be directed to the Shoreline Food Bank, Seattle Symphony, SAM, and any other institution you know Cheryl valued in the community give back and pay it forward in her name. Please, also, feel free to add memories to Cheryl's page at Return Home Funeral Home: https://my.gather.app/remember/cheryl-ennor. The family is conferring about whether and how to host a memorial service given that they all live in different states and are differently abled relative to long distance travel a Zoom event, perhaps. If so, it will be announced at the above link. Regardless, enjoy sharing the positive ripples of having known the energetic force that was Cheryl.