When we were children growing up in Olga on Orcas Island beginning in the late 1940s, we developed an appreciation for aircraft flying over our home. Our parents, Maurice and Peggy Rodenberger would identify who was flying over us:

Initially: “There goes Bob Schoen” who founded air service to the San Juan Islands in the late 1940s.

Then when he hired a pilot: “There goes Roy Franklin.”

When San Juan County had only one doctor who visited clinics on the major islands and flew his private plane to airports on the islands: “There goes Dr. Heath.”

When I was riding my friend’s horse bareback at age 12, I fell off and broke my right shoulder. My parents transported me in Dad’s tugboat, the PEGGY R, to Friday Harbor to consult Dr. Heath who then flew me to Bellingham Airport and drove me in his private car to St. Joseph’s Hospital for treatment.

Betty Jean Rodenberger Densmore

Orcas Island