I worked with Jeff at Ballard and Bitter Lake CC.  He was a fair and respected leader.  He is missed.

Being at Green Lake now we found an OLD surge protector with SKINNER written on it.  Gave me a good chuckle.  That thing is OLD

Jeff you are missed!  You were a mentor to so many of us at SPR and spoke your mind in the best possible way.  .Every time I visited your office at Green Lake you had a friendly smile, kind word, and chocolate. I'll miss running into you walking the lake.  RIP

Jeff was a mainstay at Green Lake CC.  He was always quick to help and solid in his support.  He was missed at SPR when he retired.  I hope his family is able to find some comfort in the amount of good that Jeff did for his community.  Those lives that he touched continue to do good in the community even if he is no longer physically with us.

Firstly, my condolences to the family and everyone grieving Jeff.   It is a big loss and he will be missed. 

Thinking of him makes me smile as he always greeting me with a wave and a smile. Always a firm handshake and knowing nod when we parted. 

I met Jeff at Bitter Lake Community Center when he was the coordinator in the 90s.  He gave me my first job, scoring and timing youth basketball games with Aaron. We played on the BLCC basketball teams that my father coached and where, later, I was a counselor for Kevin, who was friends with my brother.  I always felt lucky to have someone like Jeff in my corner. 

Jeff was a good man and someone that always seemed to choose happiness.  He would always smile and wave when I saw him at Greenlake or around town, wanted to check up on my family and seemed to genuinely care.  I, and many, many of his co-workers, will remember him fondly. Skinner had a great talent for making things fun and was very loyal to his friends and co-workers that became friends. I’m sure this extended to his family as, in my experience, he was a very authentic man. 

Rest in peace, Jeff. You will be missed.

The sidewalk outside Freddie Steele’s Restaurant in Westport, WA, is where Jeff and I met on Labor Day, 1964. He was nineteen. I was fifteen. He and I dated, became each other’s first spouses when we married in 1968 when Jeff returned from Vietnam. 
We both attended the U of W before both working for Seattle Parks and Recreation in 1971. Jeff remained until he retired, I moved away in 1986. We worked in the same division, held the same job titles, worked in proximity to each other for eight years after we divorced in 1978
 
We were in touch over the years after this, up until just prior to his final hospitalization when we kept discussing a meet-up and walk around Greenlake. We assumed he would feel well enough soon. I am in disbelief, deeply heartsick, with his rapid passing. 

Jeff was honest, trustworthy, and reliable. Jeff’s list of close friends over the years is long. He taught me to be patient, to look for creative solutions. He taught me to drink black coffee, cook eggs over-easy, and to spit-polish boots. Jeff was poetic, wrote well. He enjoyed plays on words, double entendres, and long, elaborate jokes as well as corny ones.

Jeff was theatrical.  He gestured dramatically when enthused about a topic.  He sometimes dangled a cigarette from his lower lip as he bluffed at poker, as if playing the part of a card-shark in a film.
 
Music spoke to him. In the 70's he stacked Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, Bob Dylan, and Cream albums.  He repeatedly played the thirteen-minute Ginger Baker drum solo from “Toad." The Canned Heat song, “Going Up Country,” reminds me of Jeff, though numbers of Dylan songs do, as well.  The Clancy Brothers albums were his first eight tracks.

Jeff read eclectically, but he was enthralled with Tolkien, especially "Lord of the Rings." 

 He seemed as if he would live forever. Jeff will always be part of my core self; we figured out how to be adults together. I loved him as a husband and then as a true friend.

I meet Jeff in summer of 1963 and he and I worked for his aunt and uncle, Fred and Helen Steele’s restaurant in Westport 3 summers. Jeff became the big brother who I never had. Our adventures in those summers are the best memories of growing towards adulthood. We remained friends throughout his army years and life then took us on separate adventures. I always thought of him and life lessons I learned from Jeff. 
You will always be in my heart..
Byron Rickert

Jeff was my love for four years. We did everything together right to the end. We traveled to Europe twice. We spent weekends at the beach. We cooked and shopped and watched movies. Life is going to be so much less without him. I miss him more than I can say. Good bye my sweetheart.

Please accept my deepest condolences on the passing of Mr Skinner.

During times of loss, many find comfort in the Bible’s promise of a better world. I would like to share a passage that has brought reassurance to those who mourn, it reads:” He will swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces…”(Isaiah 25:8)
Sincerely yours,
HP

OBITUARY

Jeffrey "Jeff" Lee Skinner

August 6, 1946 – May 12, 2026

Evergreen Washelli Funeral Home & Cemetery

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