Golf tourney part of Don Isely’s legacy
Published 11:51 am Thursday, October 2, 2008
SNOQUALMIE – Getting a chance to play golf at the TPC (Tournament Players Course) on Snoqualmie Ridge is a rare treat. The Jack Nicklaus-designed links make up a members-only course that someday could be a PGA tour stop.
Some residents of the Valley have trouble making ends meet, and many rely on local organizations that form the backbone of the area’s social support system.
Don Isley has helped bring those disparate aspects of the Valley together for a charity event, the Snoqualmie Valley Charity Golf Classic. This will be the fifth year the tournament will take place in Snoqualmie and Isley hopes it will be the most successful.
“One of the biggest selling points of this charity is that it [money raised] stays here in the Valley,” Isley said.
The event not only is a reflection of private commitment to the Valley, but it also reflects the more than two decades of public service Isley has spent in Snoqualmie. After 21 years of service in the city, Isley will be stepping down from his post as organizer of the Snoqualmie Valley Charity Golf Classic and retiring.
Isley was born in Iowa, but moved around a lot as a child. He graduated from high school while living in Colorado and went into the Army serving in Vietnam in the 74th Detachment. When he returned to the states he was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, where he would meet his future wife Becky.
After some airline hijackings in the early 1970s, marshals were assigned to flights and Isley spent time stationed at JFK Airport in New York City. He finished out his service back at Fort Hood in the military police, and then moved to Washington state where his parents were living.
After attending Green River Community College, Isley got his first job as a police officer with the Port of Seattle. Isley said he eventually went through a period of career questioning that most officers go through and wondered if he really wanted to be a police officer the rest of his working life. He decided to take some time off and worked for a computer company, but the new lifestyle didn’t fit.
“There [was] no challenge, no desire,” Isley said.
The chief of police in Snoqualmie knew Isley from their shared time at the Port of Seattle and invited him to come out to Snoqualmie. Isley accepted and started as an officer in 1983. He was later promoted to chief in 1987.
As head of police during a time of prodigious growth in the Valley, Isley watched the city’s population grow from 1,500 people to nearly 5,000. What started out as a police department of no more than four officers has grown to 13. He also oversaw the development of the city’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and school resource officer programs in the school district.
Isley eventually was placed in charge of public safety when Snoqualmie decided to form its own fire department in 1997 after contracting with District 10 (now Eastside Fire and Rescue) for several years. Snoqualmie was just a few months away from the end of its contract when the city asked Isley to become director of public safety, which entailed forming a new fire department in a matter of weeks. Isley said organizing and hiring a fire department was not easy, but with a little help from his colleagues and connections, the department was ready to go on its own in January of 1998.
“When I first started out, I thought I was going to get on my uniform and save the world,” Isley said. “But as I got older, I realized the best part of the job is not putting people in handcuffs. It’s helping people.”
As he become more involved with the city, Isley occasionally found time to hit golf balls with his friend George Cook, director of development for Snoqualmie Ridge. The two talked about how great it would be if the city could host a charity golf tournament to raise money for Valley causes. They knew the new TPC golf course would be a huge draw and so Isley set about organizing a tournament. The first one, held in 2000 and featuring Mohammed Ali, was a success, raising $20,000 for local charities.
“Don’s tireless work on behalf of the Snoqualmie Valley charities to provide funding and support to those fellow residents in need is just a small sign of his life’s dedication to the service of others,” said Sam Johnson, general manager of the Salish Lodge and Spa.
After hiring an organizer for the first year, Isley and the tournament’s board decided to go it alone. There was some skepticism about how long the charity would last without the celebrity golfer connections of other tournaments. Although Isley was told his tournament wouldn’t last longer than a couple of years, he insisted that sponsors wanted to golf with their co-workers, not with celebrities they didn’t know. The tournament’s longevity and popularity has proven him right so far, but he said he has his wife Becky and his assistant Liz Luizzo to thank for a lot of his success.
“We’re quick learners,” Isley said. “Here we are, in our fifth year.”
It was that persistence that left such a mark with Matt Campbell, the PGA golf professional at Mount Si Golf Course. The two came to know each other over their shared golf passion and Campbell was asked to help organize parts of the golf tournament.
“He follows through,” Campbell said. “What he says he is going to do, he does.”
With a working golf tournament and a public safety department humming along, Isley started to think about the end of his career. Eyeing retirement, Isley wanted to spend this past year taking it easy and even planned a trip to Africa. The firing of Snoqualmie’s city administrator last summer left a large administrative gap, however, and Mayor Fuzzy Fletcher called Isley back from vacation to fill the void.
“The only reason I accepted is because of the mayor we have now,” Isley said. “I have a lot of respect for him.”
Rather than a slow ride into retirement, Isley has helped lead the city through a frenzy of activity during the past year. In addition to starting the search for a permanent city administrator, the city approved the second phase of the Snoqualmie Ridge development, started construction on a second fire station and appointed a new council member. Isley also went through a whole budget season with the city as its city administrator.
“When Don retires, his presence as a public servant will be greatly missed,” Fletcher said. “I’d be proud to ride the river with him any time.”
Isley helped in the search for new city administrator Jay Krauss, who will start next month, and he is now spending his waning weeks wrapping things up. The last month before the tournament is the busiest and Isley is putting the finishing touches on what he hopes will be the best tournament yet. The event has dolled out $176,000 in donations over the past four years and after next week’s golf tournament, Isley hopes to go well over $200,000.
The tournament will stay pretty much the same as in previous years, but there are a few new highlights. One will be a hole-in-one competition sponsored by Nuprecon that will award winners $5,000 with an additional $5,000 going to the charity’s money pool. Another will be a chance for participants to take part in a training session with the Snoqualmie Police Department.
While a day on the green is a great time, Isley said the best part is passing out the checks later in the year. Valley institutions such as Children’s Services of Sno-Valley and the Mount Si Senior Center are regular recipients of proceeds, and many charities have come to rely on the checks Isley passes out every year as part of their budgets.
“With the county cutting so many services, it is more important than ever,” Isley said.
Isley said the golf tournament will be one of the legacies he hopes will continue after he retires next month. He is unsure of how he will or will not be involved in coming years, but he knows he will at least check in to see how it is doing. He has a burgeoning Harley-Davidson hobby and a cabin in Rosyln that beckons him. He and his wife also run a moose hunting camp in Canada every fall and have a daughter and granddaughter c
