Margaret Elizabeth Raichle

Jan. 21, 1941 - June 27, 2022

Margaret was born in Aberdeen, WA, to her parents Marcus S. and D. Margaret Raichle, joining her 4-year-old brother Marcus E., to complete their nuclear family. She died at home on June 27, 2022, under the care of Providence Hospice of Seattle, following a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Following graduation from Aberdeen High School (1959), she went on to the University of Washington where she was an active member of Alpha Phi sorority and earned a B. Ed with a minor jin art. During her college years, she worked summers as a lifeguard alongside her brother and future sister-in-law at Twanoh State Park on Hood Canal. She often said that her biggest fear during her work there was that someone would get into trouble under the dock.

Upon graduation from the UW, she was immediately hired by Seattle Public Schools as a kindergarten teacher; she taught for them for 42 years, spending the majority of her career at 3 elementary schools: Greenlake, Sandpoint, and lastly View Ridge. While at Greenlake, she became very interested in working with the hearing-impaired program. In order to pursue this interest, she took a leave of absence in 1968-69 to enroll in San Francisco State University where she earned an MA, focusing on hearing-impaired education (1969). That year spent in San Francisco was a very interesting experience as she struggled at times to concentrate in her classes while demonstrations supporting human rights issues went on outside her classroom. In the fall of 1969, she returned to Seattle Public Schools to teach in their hearing-impaired program, working with hard-of-hearing children of diverse racial, ethnic, economic, and social backgrounds; she enjoyed this diversity immensely and got to know and understand the needs and stories of these children and their families. During the last few years, she returned to teaching in regular kindergarten with a strong inclusion of hard-of-hearing children. She retired in 2006.

Margaret spent her 81 years wisely, generously, creatively, and compassionately. Among her many diverse interests, six stand out as major influences on her life. At the top of the list is her extended FAMILY; her family was always her top priority as demonstrated when she moved near and then in with her mother to care for her after her dad died. Though most of her family members were located in St. Louis and Wisconsin, she saw them as often as possible: she and her parents went to St. Louis for Christmas and other family events, such as weddings. Her brother’s extended family would all travel in groups out to Hood Canal to visit at the family “summer” home on the Canal. These times created many happy times and marvelous memories. Over the past several years, many of these families have migrated out to western Washington, making these get-togethers more frequent.

CHILDREN were always a priority for Margaret. She loved them, no matter where in the world she met them. During summers at the Canal, whenever children were coming for a visit, she would always stock up on arts & crafts projects, put age-appropriate books on the bookshelves, make sure the water toys were ready for use, have the ingredients for s’mores on hand and then participate WITH the children in these activities, making sure they were having a fabulous time. The children saw her as a kindred spirit and enjoyed her enthusiastic and joyous participation with them. When she was teaching hard-of-hearing children, she often took her classes to the Canal for a field trip; there they had jam-packed days, filled with water and outdoor activities, picnic food, and ferry rides, things that many of the children had never experienced.

Margaret was destined to be a teacher, especially with her love of children. She often talked about how, as a child, she would frequently line up her dolls and “hold school,” even before she had experienced school herself. She also frequently said she loved teaching and had never considered anything as a career. And she was good at it!! People observing her said it was spell-binding to watch her interact so easily and successfully with each individual student as well as the whole class as a group. She spent many evening and weekend hours preparing materials and lesson plans to make sure her students reached their potentials, developed new interests and skills, and enjoyed themselves in the process. Her skills and dedication was recognized by her colleagues and parents of her students and she was awarded “Teacher of the Year” several times in different schools. Do you remember your kindergarten teacher and have great memories of her/him to this day? That was who Margaret was, etched in her students’ good memories forever.

MUSIC provided a great joy for Margaret from early childhood. Through her lifetime, she mastered the piano, violin, and accordion. She played the violin in her high school orchestra as well as singing in its chorus. She had a piano in her kindergarten classroom and music was an important part of her curriculum. Her accordion music was primarily limited to the enjoyment of her family and visiting children. During her adult years, she sang in the “”back-up” choir at University Presbyterian Church and became a frequent audience member at a variety of musical events, e.g., orchestral, vocal, musical theater, ballet, etc. The variety of entertainment provided on the cruise ships was one of her most enjoyable activities drawing her to cruising. Listening to classical music brought her to a state of peace and calm during her weeks in Hospice care.

Margaret was a dedicated GARDENER; she loved getting her hands dirty, planting and tending the flowers and plants outdoors and the houseplants inside. Because she lived in apartments and condominiums during her adult years, her gardening skills were mostly practiced at her family’s property on Hood Canal where she designed and produced beautiful, colorful, interesting gardens and was able to harvest some produce, especially berries. Visitors to the Canal will remember the petunias in pots on the deck, the geraniums in window boxes, the rhododendrons and azaleas, the flowers dotting the rockery,etc. But she did have one failure: she fell in love with California poppies, the orange flowers considered by most to be weeds, that grow everywhere in all kinds of soil in places where no one is caring for them at all. She tried three times to get these flowers to take root in her garden: One year, she tried transplanting some poppy plants. They died. The next 2 years, she tried to grow them from seeds, planting them in the main yard and the next year in a more isolated place by the garage. She followed all the instructions for planting them and tended them closely. Nothing ever came up and she finally gave up. People advising her said that she was either giving too much attention OR that the birds were successful in digging up and eating all her seeds.

Margaret never passed by a DOG without petting it (after getting permission) and, if she was sitting somewhere in the vicinity of a dog, invariably the dog would come over and settle in to be petted. The animals seemed to sense that she was their friend and she would patiently pet them until they decided to go elsewhere.

Finally, TRAVEL, especially cruising, played a dominant role throughout her life. As a child, she travelled with her parents to places like New Orleans and Cuba when her dad attended conferences; she later cruised with them to Greece and sites around the Mediterranean. She and I became experts at squeezing ski trips and a few days in Hawaii into long holiday weekends and breaks between quarters and semesters. We also took a 4-week “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium” (remember the comedic movie?) type of trip through Europe, including Scandinavia, visiting 12 countries. We started our cruising with short days-to-week-long cruises up and down the Pacific coast and to Alaska, advancing to weeks-to-months-long cruises with various itineraries: down the St. Lawrence, the Hawaiian Islands, Asia and Australia, Antarctica and South America, the British Isles, Seattle to Central America to Florida, St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea countries. We have been through the Panama Canal at least 4 times, going both ways and watched the progress on building the enlarged locks. The epitome of our cruising experiences was a 4-month Around the World Voyage, with the itinerary staying mostly near and below the equator during their summer months; we re-visited some place and lots of additional countries and ports-of-call. Our cruising experiences were magnificent, educational, memorable, and thoroughly enjoyable and we enjoyed good weather and calm seas on the majority of our cruises. Our favorite line was Holland America and our preferred ship in their fleet was the MS Amsterdam (until she was sold during the pandemic in order to cut costs). Traveling is absolutely marvelous, but it’s always good to get back home!

As you can see, Margaret had a very full life and she made her part of the world a better place through her presence. As her cousin Susan summed up her life: “She was happiest seeing that her efforts brought joy (and a sense of achievement) to others.”

Pre-deceased by her parents, Margaret is survived by her brother, Dr. Marcus E. Raichle and his wife Mary; 4 nephews and nieces and their spouses, Marc Raichle, Jr. and Tonia, Dr. Tim Raichle and Jane; Sarah Rosing and Rick, and Dr. Katherine Raichle and Kevin Gertz; plus twelve grandnieces and grandnephews. Her loss is also deeply felt by me; we met in the fall of 1959 during our first quarter at the University of Washington, kept in touch through the college years, and upon graduation in 1963, became roommates for the next 59 years, sharing life’s experiences and opportunities.

A Graveside Celebration of life will be held on 7/14/2022 at 1:00pm at Evergreen Washelli.

Written by Barbara Innes, her long-time friend and roommate