Obituaries

• Jack Bryan Ludwick, Dec. 28, 1964, to June 22, 2022.

As a youth, Jack was a competitive bike racer, achieving the number one ranking in the Northern California region. He channeled this passion into customizing bikes for all the neighborhood residents, which ended up with a job at Auker’s Bows and Bikes in Old Town, Eureka. His passion soon turned from customizing bikes to customizing classic cars, wherein he made his profession, specializing in the restoration of early model fiberglass body Corvettes. He was the sole owner of Body Craft Body Shop. His work received numerous awards in car shows throughout the nation.

Jack was also a passionate music lover, playing electric bass in local Humboldt County bands and amassing an impressive collection of vinyl records, subsidized by his DJ business Sight & Sound, started while still in high school, which incorporated professional lighting effects along with hi-fi sound. Jack was an avid diver and enjoyed family trips in the pursuit of abalone, as well as, trips to our mountains and lakes, skiing and wakeboarding.

Jack was preceded in death by his father Vernon, a renowned classical guitarist and composer, and his step-father Robert Lee Wright, a beloved educator. He is survived by his mother Sylvia Riewerts, of Milwaukie, Oregon, and his brother James Wright of Eureka, California, amongst numerous other loved ones. 

• Mary Frances Cooper, Nov. 16, 1954, to July 6, 2022.

Our beloved Mary Frances Cooper Frost passed away on July 6, 2022, at her home in McKinleyville, California. Mary was a life-long resident of Humboldt County; born in Eureka, California, to Bronte and Clara Cooper. She was the middle sibling of five. Her dad worked in the timber industry and her mom was a teacher. Mary attended Arcata High School, graduating class of 1973.

Mary did so many different kinds of work over the course of her life that only Mary knew all that she had done. She had a profound mix of professional jobs that included a Montessori school teacher and dental hygienist. She took great pride in volunteering for numerous organizations in her community.

Mary was a wonderful and loving mother to her children, Clint and Jordan. Mary did the best she could to provide as a single mom. Their needs, wants and dreams always came first. She celebrated their athleticism and playful spirits. She always made sure they went out camping, swimming, hiking and getting together with friends and family often.

Mary is described by her friends as a solar-powered, living-dancing-hula hooping spirit leaving behind sparkling glitter of kindness everywhere she went. She was put together with the best top hats, spunky skirts, painted toenails and a camera to match. Mary didn’t fit in a box and nor would she ever want to. Mary didn’t choose her people; people chose her. And to those people, she came bearing sentimental gifts, each token and trinket shared with happiness for them to cherish as she cherished those she loved. From her blackberry jams to Halloween popcorn balls, she always had treats for everyone. Mary was always on her bicycle wheeling towards the next best gig, picking up trash and aluminum cans in her path. You could find her late-night hooping under the stars at both festivals and small intimate social gatherings. She was the life and light of the party; she brought the party. Her little red house was an adored and adorned home, it was her solace. The smells of baking lingered with the laughter of her granddaughter and friends. The sounds of Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real rang her bunny ears and shook her bunny tail. Mary had some very special, treasured life-long friends; she knows you will recognize without name those whom she held dear. She resides now in peace and comfort with her mother for whom she cared and tended until the end, and with her youngest son who flew from this earth too soon.  

Our beloved Mary, Humboldt Pie, Grandma Mary, Aunt Mary, Mama Mary, our friend, our neighbor, our house cleaner, our baker, our manicurist, our gardener, and our very own hometown legacy. Safe travels on your next big adventure.

Mary is preceded in death by her brother Harlan Cooper (Ranae), father Bronte L. Cooper, mother Clara Cooper and her son Jordan Frost (Bre). 

She is survived by her son Clint Frost (Tarin), grandchildren Hailie and Eli Frost and Savannah Beeman. Step children Crystal and Jason Frost. Her sisters Linda Gaston and Beverly Kirk and brother Bronte A. Cooper. Nieces Marcy, Libby, Sara and Sammi and nephews, Todd, Mason, Sean, Patrick and Christopher. And of course, countless extended family, friends and neighbors that she would have been lost without.

Robert McKee, beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather, great grandfather and visionary community member died peacefully in San Francisco on January 21, 2022.

He was born in Eureka on January 15, 1929, and spent his early childhood at the family homestead in Whitethorn. After the untimely deaths of his parents, Vernon Calvin McKee and Rebecca Snavely, he moved to Eureka to live with his paternal grandmother, Nettie Cookson. His grandmother lived on a Civil War pension, and she also rented out rooms to men who worked at the lumber and woolen mills. As a small boy, Bob began adding to their income by collecting and selling scrap metal and newspapers, beginning his appreciation for work that lasted throughout his life. In his own words, “Eureka was a wonderful place to grow up — so many things to see and do.” He loved to go out early in the morning to watch the street lights turn off, the town waking up and folks showing up for all different kinds of jobs.

In high school, Bob became fascinated with automobiles and ended up buying, rebuilding and trading all sorts of cars, motorbikes and even an airplane, an interest that never left him. He joined the Navy the day he turned 17 and worked on a destroyer tender docked in Tsingtao on the Yellow Sea in China. After the Navy, he worked in a lumber mill, drove a laundry truck, got a job at Humboldt Land and Title and also started taking classes at Humboldt State University on the GI bill.

He married Barbara Andrews in 1952. Their daughter Rebecca was born in 1953 and their son Rob in 1955. Bob worked as a timber cruiser and in his father-in-law’s grocery store while continuing to go to school part-time and building his first house, a duplex in Cutten. He loved becoming a father and said, “It was just a wonderful feeling.” Barbara and Bob realized that they had very different goals and desires in their life and ended up separating. Barbara moved to Berkeley with the kids, and Bob moved to San Francisco to be near the kids and do carpentry work. While in San Francisco, he became part of a circle of friends (some from Humboldt) who were poets, writers, teachers, and students of Buddhism. He and Valery White, who had separated from her first husband, Locke McCorkle, started spending time together, fell in love and made the decision to move back to the Mckee Family homestead in Whitethorn and start a life together. They arrived on July 1, 1957 with Val’s three kids and all of their worldly possessions. Their daughter Lela was born in 1958, a little sister for Rebecca, Sita, Tasha, Rob, and Sean. During summers and holidays, the six kids explored the forest, built forts and played in the Mattole River.

Bob got a job teaching and taught at Whitethorn, Ettersburg and Redway elementary schools. Following his teaching career, he returned to his love of design and building. His interest in buying land and developing home sites was spurred by the migration of young people wanting to escape urban life and rigid societal expectations and “move back to the land.” In order to get the building materials Bob needed for his projects, he started Whitethorn Construction. He always said you need to do more than one kind of work to make a living here, and he did that through land sales, selling building supplies and as a designer-builder.

Bob loved work and saw no difference between a work day and a day off. He worked seven days a week until he was 90. He loved people and community and helped many create homes here as well as community gathering places and open space. He and his wife Valery were married for 60 years, sharing a love for the beauty of nature, poetry and art. They collaborated on a number of creative projects.

Bob finally slowed down in the last few years of his life, spending time with friends and family, playing Texas Hold’em with his buddies, reading the Tao Te Ching, writing haikus and sitting on his deck in the sun overlooking the valley below. In his final year, he collaborated with Ray Rafael recording the story of his life. This veritable “life review” was a very satisfying enterprise for Bob and all who participated. This more reflective period was a gift to all who knew him. As his friends at Redwoods Monastery described him, “Bob had, in the last months of his life, a tenderness, an awe, an awareness that was striking.”

Bob was preceded in death by his sisters, Joyce Callahan and Jean Ridgeway, his wife Valery, his son, Sean McKee and his son-in-law, Ron Macaruso. He is survived by his children, Rebecca McKee, Sita Formosa (David), Tasha ( Jim Groeling), Rob McKee (Maryellen), Lela McKee Friel (Jimmy), his nephews Vern Callahan (Kristen), Aaron White (Shawn), Conrad White (Carlea), his nieces, Debbie Mason, Kathy Rose (Pete Gray), Cindy Lewis (Bobby), Kirsten White (Lee Robbino), Valery White (Malcolm Shuttles), and eleven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

 The family wishes to thank all of the caregivers, medical staff, mentors and friends near and far who gave much love, support and the gift of cards and flowers to Bob and his family. Our gratitude is overflowing!

A community celebration of Bob’s life will be held Sunday, September 18th, at Whitethorn Construction from  3.p.m to 8:30 p.m. I Like It Here, the oral history written by Bob and Ray, will be available at the celebration.

Donations in Bob’s name may be made to Heart of the Redwoods Community Hospice, Redwoods Monastery, or Sanctuary Forest.