In Memoriam

Kruse, Doug
1918 – 2007

Captain Doug Kruse crossed the bar on July 10th of this year at the age of 89, two months shy of his 90th birthday. Captain Kruse held QCYC membership number 009. Doug was born September 20, 1918, in Seattle where he grew up and lived all his life. While he was growing up, his folks owned a hobby and fishing tackle shop and Doug’s hobby was building model airplanes. He was very good at this and joined “Birdmen of America” and won several model airplane contests and even entered at the national level. Doug attended Lincoln HS and UW.

While at the UW, Doug worked full time at Boeing, during WW II, and at one time was assigned as a field rep which interrupted his schooling temporarily. After coming back from assignment, Doug received a BS in Engineering from UW. Doug spent most of his 32 year career with GE where he worked in the HVAC group and then went into the GE Aircraft Division where he became an environmental chemist after GE sponsored his attending special classes and training at Harvard. Doug retired early from GE at the age of 57 and enjoyed a long and fruitful retirement. On the side, while working for GE, Doug formed a private airplane cleaning business at Boeing field. Later, he developed his property management business; owning the 30-unit Varsity Arms apartment building, rental houses, apple orchards near Titan in the Yakima area, and other properties in Grayland, LaConner and on Holmes Harbor on Whidbey Island.

Captain Kruse joined Queen City in 1959 and was very active in the 60s and 70s. He and Eleanor participated regularly in the QCYC social events and cruises. Eleanor remembers socializing with good friends the Bob Burfitts and enjoying the camaraderie of membership. When Doug joined Queen City he owned the “Kruser II”, a 26’ Higgins and later moved up to a 30’ Chris Craft, the “Kruser III”. After many years of cruising, Doug became a licensed private airplane, both land and float planes, pilot and spent most of his recreational time flying although he traded the Chris Craft in on a 20’ Bell Boy fishing boat the “Kruser IV”. He would often fly with Eleanor to their property on Whidbey which had a nice sandy spit for docking his float plane.

Doug and Eleanor have spent the last few years as snowbirds in Yuma AZ but have kept the family home in View Ridge.