Karl Raymond Etherington – 50th Reunion Essay

Karl Raymond Etherington

Date of Death: 3-Sep-1973

College: Davenport

(Karl Raymond Etherington is buried in the Hawthorne Cemetery, Mt Vernon, Washington.)

From the Bridgeport Post: Karl Etherington, Yale Divinity School graduate, died Monday from injuries suffered in an August 2 bicycle accident.

From the gravestone: Beloved husband of Patricia.

From Rich Huttner: My one remembrance of Karl Etherington that is meaningful concerns his meeting freshman year a young woman who became his wife. Unfortunately, I no longer remember her name… When Karl first introduced her to our third roommate, Bob Dull, the other guys on our floor in Farnham, and myself, someone in our pack snickered that, to say it nicely, she was not a classic beauty. Another charitable flatmate chimed in, “Are you getting any?” My reaction was muted. I didn’t say anything, but I wondered why Karl had started dating a girl who wasn’t “hot.” This seemed to be the only criteria our pack found meaningful. Karl said nothing in response to our kidding comments. And he never engaged in such evaluative discussions himself.

Two weeks later, Karl had had several dates with her, and all of us shut up. Karl had mentioned offhandedly, “You know, this girl is really nice and fun to be with.” That was what was important to him. As we got to know Karl’s girlfriend and future wife, we all liked her, and any initial adolescent judgments fell by the wayside. I always felt a little guilty, however, about our initial comments.

The point of this story is how decent a guy Karl was. He would never say anything bad about anyone else, and he judged people by their behavior and character. The world would benefit from more Karl Etheringtons.