William G. ‘George’ Mundt, 87, a Clear Lake area resident, passed away on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham.
George was born on July 28, 1920 on the family farm in the Beaver Lake Valley, the 3rd child of William & Katherine Hummer Mundt.
He attended grade school in Clear Lake and high school in Sedro-Woolley, where he lettered in boxing and graduated with the class of 1938. He then made his home on Lummi Island, living with his sister and her family and worked as a mason’s helper on the Logalita Lodge. He then worked as a riveter at Boeing, but ‘seeing no future in that kind of work’ he entered a 3 year apprentice program at the Edison Vocational School and became a tool maker.
In 1942 he joined the U.S. Navy where he served as a pilot and a navigator serving in the South Pacific and the Philippines with the VP54-VP54B Black Cat Squadron. In the PBY’s, it was flying ‘low & slow’. After WW II he worked as a traveling jewelry salesman, and ‘seeing no future in that kind of work’, and with his war buddies in college, he entered the University of Washington where he pledged into the PSI Upsilon Fraternity and during his senior year served as President. He graduated with a BA in Business Administration in 1950. Later that year he married Arta Weeks, from Lopez Island, the mother of his children.
During the Korean Conflict he was recalled to duty flying the east and west coast of Korea.
Lt. Bill Mundt re-entered civilian life in 1952 and he eventually ‘landed’ in Bellevue where he began his career in real estate sales, opening his own business, William Mundt Realty Inc. in 1959.
With four children now, he became very involved in that community, not only with their activities but with civic ones as well, serving with the East Side Brokers Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, and the Downtown Bellevue Development Community to name a few until closing his office in 1991.
Bill loved his golf, and was a member of the Over Lake Golf & County Club in Medina for over 40 years and at the Cabo Real Golf Club in Mexico. He rarely missed the ‘final round’ of the pro’s on Sunday morning. He was also a big sports fan, especially anything Huskies, Mariners or Seahawks.
In 1982 he met Gisela Rueckel, his best friend and his wife for the past 25 years and together they enjoyed an active life. Winters were spent in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico and summers at Sudden Valley near Bellingham, with frequent trips back to ‘the farm’ where he was born to do his ‘chores’. He loved to cut the grass, trim along the fence and keep the bull thistles and bramble bushes cut back. He would then relax with the paper and take a nap at the mouth of Mundt Creek where he entertained himself as a young boy and where he caught his first fish.
He was very proud of his family, his service to his country, the Bellevue community.
A toast to you Dad, you will be greatly missed.
He was preceded in death by his father, William in 1928; his beloved mother, Katherine in 1978; his brother and sister-in-law, Louis & Rose Mundt; sister and brother-in-law, Irene & Joe Granger and 2 nieces.
He is survived by his wife, Gisela. 3 daughters, Mauri Vessels, Marta McKelvey and Melinda Mundt-McCombs and his son, Thomas Mundt. 11 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren, 3 nephews and 2 nieces and their families and many friends.
Memorials in his memory are suggested to the charity of your choice.
A Life Celebration will be held on Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 2:00 PM at Lemley Chapel in Sedro-Woolley.