People across the nation first “met” the Unsoeld family years ago on the pages of the National Geographic magazine in an article about Willi Unsoeld’s historic climb up Mount Everest, called Sagarmatha by local Tibetans. Later on, here in Olympia, people came to know the Unsoeld family once Willi became one of the founding faculty at Evergreen as well as through the activism of his children. But, most of us didn’t come to know Jolene until she ran for the state legislature in 1985. 

Unbeknownst to many of us, Jolene had been deeply involved in legislative activism in the 1970s, part of an effort that produced our state’s public disclosure laws. She was also part of the creation of Fair Electric Rates Now (FERN) to oppose nuclear energy and encourage energy conservation.

Willi died while leading a tragic Mount Rainier climb in 1979. A few years afterward, Jolene slowly emerged above the water line in the world of politics, going from what she called, a “citizen meddler” to getting elected to the Washington State House of Representatives in 1984. Then in 1988, she was elected to become our congressional representative in the US Congress where her first act was signing on to what was then called a Gay Rights Bill.   

In the early 1980s, I got to know Jolene better when she invited me out for lunch at the Rainbow Restaurant. Jolene asked me lots of questions about the political work I was doing.  At the time she was already a legislator and I was just a scrappy young antiwar activist.  No one who was that important or in such a position of power and respect had ever taken me seriously before. Jolene buying me lunch was a huge deal. She really listened to my political priorities and my analysis of whatever military intervention the US was involved in at that particular time. This was one of the most affirming things I have ever experienced in my life. My own parents never asked me about what was important in my life, much less why I cared enough about US foreign policy to get arrested so many times.

Later on, in 1988, Jolene was elected to Congress from our district, and the relationship continued. More than a few times she called me from the floor of Congress, 5:00 am my time and 8:00 am her time to ask for talking points on Central America. This was a time when she directly sought out the perspectives of her constituents who were part of the robust Olympia network of organizations opposed to US intervention in El Salvador and Nicaragua. She cared deeply about what her home community believed in and she made sure she got it right. 

In the late 1980s, Jolene once showed up at one of the Seattle Pride marches. This was back in the day when Pride only happened in big cities because it was not safe to be out in small towns like Olympia. And it was certainly a political death wish for a small-town elected official to be seen in such a march. But there she was, standing along the sidewalk. When she saw a contingent of Olympia LGBTQ+ folks in the march, she just stepped out and joined us. No fanfare, no diva-hooray-for-me-to-be-an-ally, she just fell into step and joined us. Jolene did the right thing.  

Inspired by that amazing lunch from long ago, I’ve attempted to rise to Jolene’s good example in my work life at the City of Olympia, making time to take on Evergreen interns and give them the opportunity to gain real-time experience working on homelessness, one of the toughest issues of our times. In my political work, I’ve sought to recognize, affirm, and support younger activists to take on leadership roles. With each person, I worked hard to really see them, listen to them, and value their work. Jolene modeled all that for me. 

Jolene was a true mensch. I will always be grateful to her for that lunch so many years ago.