Phil Godfrey

Phil Earl Godfrey was born on August 4th, 1933 and passed away peacefully with his wife and his three children by his side on September 4th 2015. Dad had always been a very healthy guy and rarely been sick so it came on suddenly and surprisingly to all of us.

Dad led a very eventful life. He went to Lincoln High School and was one of the top athlete’s in the city of Seattle at that time. After high school he worked for Buchan’s Bakery delivering bread to local grocery stores and during this time played semi pro baseball. In the late 50’s he and two friends started a trucking company, FW Palin Trucking. That evolved into work on the initial construction of Interstate 5 through Seattle & 405 through Bellevue among other high profile work. During this time he met Rhoady Lee Jr and helped him build what became Lakeside Industries. In the mid 70’s Rhoady sold Dad the Alaska portion of the business that was at that time based in Juneau and that started a 25 year run of mostly successes in Alaska. While Dads business was based on Asphalt paving he was a General Contractor and spun off divisions into Building Construction, Marine based work and Land Development. There were very few areas throughout the state of Alaska that Dad didn’t work. As he was nearing retirement age he helped several of his employees start spin-off businesses by selling them equipment on contract and financing their work. When he finally got all of his work completed and “retired” he quickly realized that retirement wasn’t for him so he went out and bought a roofing company to give him something to do. He would work half a day and then head over to Overlake Golf and Country Club to play golf on good days or cards on rainy days. In his later years, to all of our surprise, he gave up golf but he still went to Overlake every day to play cards with his valued friends.

Dad was an avid golfer, at one time carried a scratch handicap. He was a member at Inglewood Golf and Country Club first and then after moving to the Medina area he joined Overlake Golf and Country Club. He was also a member of Wailea Golf and Country Club on Maui where he owned a condominium for over 25 years where he would spend his winters. He lived a very full life, golfing at St Andrews and nearly all of the top golf courses in the US, African Safari’s, biking across the mountains in France, rafting the Colorado River and his very favorite, attending the Masters in Augusta which he did 23 times. He seemed to get more fun out of bringing friends to the Masters that hadn’t been there than going there himself. He liked to show his friends a good time and if they couldn’t afford it that was ok, he covered the expenses for them. He was a very generous man. Through golf he met several notable celebrities among them Arnold Palmer (caddied a round for him, great guy), Jack Nicklaus (didn’t like him) and Michael Jordan among others.

Dad was preceded in death by his brother, Charles (Chucky), his Dad, Phil Godfrey Sr, Mom, Florence Allemandi, his Uncle, Bob Martin, and his oldest son, Dave.

Dad is survived by his wife Cheryl and step son Kyle, his three surviving children; Jan Forman (Pat), Joan Williams (Craig), Doug Godfrey (Shaune) and his three step-sons from his second marriage; Chris, Craig (Layne) and Kevin (Jamie) Morrison and their families as well as two sisters Delores Swanson and Gail Schoolden. He is also survived by 8 grandchildren Katie (Jeb), Dave, Dana, Leslie (Orion), Jill (Ryan), Alex (Matt), Joe and Sam as well as 4 great grand-children, Kevin, Levi, Kosta and Salish. This list would not be complete without also including his treasured Aunt Val Johnson and her sons and families, his cousins Bob, Pat, Tim, Sean and Kevin Martin.

The family would like to extend a thank you to Swedish Hospital, First Hill for the care that he received there. A special thank you to Nurse Practitioner Tauri Wicklund, we couldn’t have asked for a more candid, compassionate person to help us and Dad through his stay at the hospital.

We hope that all those who knew him will be able to join us for a celebration of his life for an opportunity to remember our Dad who to us was bigger than life and by all means tell your stories no matter what they may be, we already know that most of them are going to be funny because Dad had a great sense of humor, always joking around and keeping things light. Dad was a softy for animals, he loved dogs and cats.

Donations in his name may be made to Seattle Humane at 13212 SE Eastgate Way, Bellevue, WA. 98005 or online at www.seattlehumane.org.