Michael Timothy McLean

While reflecting upon his friend, Mike McLean, Ken McCallister said, “If the world was a jigsaw puzzle, then Mike was the piece that would fit anywhere.”

Mike was the second son, born to Ann and Shannon McLean, in Yakima, Washington. He attended Nob Hill Elementary School, Wilson Junior High, and graduated from Eisenhower High School in the Class of 1968. He then went on to attend Central Washington University.

While still in school, Mike’s first job was working retail at People’s Department Store, also working part time during the holidays at the Bon Marche. He then moved on to the financial world, first working at the Bank of Yakima in the mid 1970’s, and then on to handling business deposits and as a teller at Seattle First National Bank. He left banking when Bank of America took over Sea First in the mid 1980’s. Mike then became manager of the Tower Bar and Grill for his friends and business associates, the Irwins; he followed that by opening the first coffee shop in the Chinook Tower.

In 1987, Mike changed jobs once more, when he worked as a bookkeeper for Town and Country Travel. He left that employ when the business moved in 1991. In his search for a vocation that suited him, Mike started at Western Appraisal in Yakima, and he took what he learned from that experience to open his own business in the late 1990’s, McLean Appraisal Service. He was not retired; he did his last appraisal during the first week of January 2020.

This week, long-time friends, Charley and Cathy Murphey shared: “Mike was passionate about horses from the time he was a young man. His interest grew from riding around his neighborhood, to showing American Saddlebred horses, to championships at some of the Northwest’s largest horse shows, including the Washington State Open Horse Show, held in Yakima. His interest expanded to the Arabian horse breed, with continued success in competition and the breeding of champion horses. Mike was well known and made many lasting friends during his years of involvement with horses.”

Some of Mike McLean’s favorites included surrounding himself with the color red, being the first to wear shorts when he recognized that it was the first day of spring, watching and shopping the Home Shopping Network, eating at McGuire’s Irish Pub and the Little Dutch Inn, and Gasperetti’s, and watching vampire movies. He adored Maria Monroy, the lady who kept his home life in order. He also adored his dogs, the latest being his Black Lab, Annie. He spent every Saturday noon with the Lunch Bunch. Mike also spent a lot of time sitting at the coveted round table at McGuire’s, chatting with the regulars and the crew. He told many great stories – and even better jokes. Mike was a golfer. In his younger years, he traveled all over the United States, in Europe, and safaried in Africa.

Family always has been important to Mike. He is survived by his older brother, James Shannon McLean, from Yakima, Washington, and his nephew, Scott James McLean of Cave Creek, Arizona. Mike always loved it when Scott came to town and he got to see him; Mike was proud of Scott’s independent nature and his many successes. He is also survived by the many cousins who were traveling from Oregon and Utah to Yakima this June for a family reunion.

Mike had planned to write a letter to the administration of Yakima’s Virginia Mason Hospital to let the folks there know how thankful he was for the excellent care he received; his general practitioner, Dr. Joseph Vickers, the team in the Emergency Room, the surgical team, and nurses in the Intensive Care Unit were all professional and most caring. Dr. Chatt Johnson and ICU nurse, Leslie, should have had special commendation.

Mike McLean was a man of integrity, honesty, and compassion. Kay Sterns, who worked with him, expressed many friends of Mike’s feelings about him; she said Mike was FUN, and he would make her “laugh, laugh, laugh!” Helen Mahoney commented that “when Mike walked in, the room lit up!” He was so well known. We have lost a very fun, smart, witty, and kind friend.

On Saturday, February 1, 2020, a Celebration of Life will be held for Michael Timothy McLean, at the Yakima Country Club. Please join us between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm to share memories, and honor Mike.

Those wishing to make charitable donations in Mike’s name, please consider Wags to Riches Animal Rescue, PO Box 3177, Union Gap, WA 98903, or The Yakima Humane Society, 2405 W. Birchfield Rd., Yakima WA 98901.

Arrangements are being made by Dignity at Keith and Keith Funeral Home.

Gretchiemoto, signing off.