I met Bethany K. Weidner in Washington, D.C about a year after returning from the Soviet Union. She was working as a speech writer for US Senator George McGovern and, more importantly, she knew Wenatchee was the Apple Capital of the World. We fell in love, got married in Leahy, Washington, bought a home in Wenatchee and had two sons by 1983, JD Ross Leahy and Charles Barkley Leahy.
In 1984, we moved to Olympia. I went to work at The Evergreen State College and retired in January 2009.
Bethany worked at the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission as Director of the Office of Policy and Planning, at the State Insurance Commissioner’s office as Deputy Commissioner for Rates and Contracts and as Administrator of Sea-Mar’s West Olympia Health Care Clinic. Bethany also retired in 2009.
Both our sons went to public schools in Olympia, graduated with advanced degrees from universities, launched their careers, got married and each has one child. JD and Emily Fenton live in Seattle with two year old Inian Penn Leahy. Chad and Rachel Wilson live in Cambridge with three year old Juno Christina Leahy-Wilson. We also adopted a former student of mine, Rachel Hicks. Rachel married Simon Georgiou. Their daughter is nine year old Elsa Rae Georgiou and they live in Hawaii.
We still live in Olympia. Enjoy our close-knit neighborhood. Fill our home with visitors and look forward to seeing our children and grand children.
—November 2022
PICTURED FROM LEFT: JD Ross Leahy, Inian Penn Leahy, Emily Fenton, Kathleen Leahy, Waymon Whiting, Chad Leahy, Bethany Weidner, Dan Leahy, Rachel Wilson, Juno Leahy-Wilson
