Dr. Ernest Collett McKibben Jr. died on November 11, 2011, in Kirkland. He was 91.
Ernie was born in a Kirkland which has largely disappeared. His family home on State Street had a potato patch in front and second-growth firs crowding the back. The town was small and he walked or bicycled to all his schools — the now-vanished Central elementary, Kirkland Junior High and Kirkland High. His bicycle paper route started at the ferry dock, where the ferry Lincoln would off-load his bundle of Seattle Star papers, and stretched south to the chicken farms of Houghton ( near present-day Northwest University). And an outing with his Boy Scout troop involved a short hike over Rose Hill to camp in the woods of Redmond.
At the time Ernie was born, his father (Ernest McKibben, Sr.) was one of Kirkland’s two doctors. So Ernie Jr. frequently heard the question, “Junior, are you going to be a doctor just like your daddy?” And as far back as he could remember, his answer had always been “Uh-huh.” So in due course, Ernie Jr. headed off to Washington State College (now WSU) to enter the pre-med program. There he made life-long friendships in his AKL fraternity and another life-long connection with Ardis Hines (“a pert little blonde from Spokane.”)
The attack on Pearl Harbor came during Ernie’s senior year, and his education accelerated. Upon graduation, he proceeded directly to George Washington University School of Medicine where the Army saw to it that he got into uniform and squeezed four years of medical education into three. In June of 1945 , the newly minted doctor had just enough time to marry Ardis before taking up his civilian internship at Ohio Sate Medical School Hospital. Nine months later he went on active duty on bases in Oklahoma and Arizona before being discharged in 1947.
Ernie returned to Kirkland and joined his father’s medical practice – an arrangement that lasted for 15 years until the retirement of Ernest Sr. There was one break – the military was not quite through with Ernie Jr. and recalled him for six months of active duty in Korea in 1953. He served as camp doctor for the Peace Delegates’ establishment in Munsan, and was present at the signing of “Operation Big Switch” (a prisoner exchange agreement) in Panmunjon – an occasion which he photographed in color on his newly acquired Japanese knock-off of an expensive German camera.
Back in Kirkland again, Ernie Jr. returned to family practice with his father. Family practice appealed to Ernie because it let him “watch families grow” and get to know whole patients – their backgrounds, personalities, wants, and outlooks on life – not just their infirmities. And working with his father was an easy choice. “I was very like my father in both appearance and temperament. We worked well together, and were accepted as almost interchangeable. It was virtually one long continuum of “Dr. McKibben” in a community family practice which lasted from 1914 to 1987.” No one counted the number of babies delivered, bones set or shots administered, but those 73 years spanned medical technology ranging from mustard plasters to Medic One. And more than once Dr. McKibben delivered a baby girl who grew up to have her own children delivered by … Dr. McKibben.
Meanwhile, Ernie and Ardis were raising 4 children (Craig, Connie, Barry and Margaret) and pursuing an active outdoor life. As Ernie tells the story, while sweating through calisthenics with the Army Reserve (105th General Hospital) on the parade ground at Fort Lewis, he looked at Mt. Rainier off in he distance and thought “I could be up there!” He quit the Reserve in 1956, joined the Mountaineers, and proceeded to climb all the major peaks in Washington. Family vacations with Ardis and the children usually centered around backpacking and camping trips. All the mountaineering combined nicely with Ernie’s continuing interest in photography, and he developed real skill at capturing a whole range of wilderness subjects, from vast snowy peaks to one tiny, perfect avalanche lily.
Other community activities included the Rotary Club, the Congregational Church and Boy Scouting. He raised money for Scouting, taught Scouts first aid, gave them physicals, accompanied them on camping trips and became famous for his campfire stories. He was deeply involved in planning and launching Evergreen Hospital, serving twice as Chief of Staff. Even though he was scaling back his obstetrics practice at the time it opened, he made sure he delivered a baby there “just to say that I’d done it.”
Retirement in 1987 meant time for some long-deferred hobbies such as travel and playing the organ. It also meant more time for gardening, both the vegetable variety and the landscaping variety. He planted trees by the dozen, transforming the backyard alder patch into a pleasing nature trail showcasing the reddish wood of the cedar stump, the curving trunks of the corkscrew willow.
When Ernie and Ardis moved to Emerald Heights retirement community in 1997, Ernie naturally gravitated to working on the woodsy trail around the perimeter. He helped build new sections of trail, pulled out blackberries and planted new ground cover and more trees. He also wrote a monthly column for the Emerald Heights newsletter about what was blooming, sprouting, greening up or turning color along the trail.
A few years after Ardis’s death in 2005, Ernie had to abandon gardening as his eyesight failed and mobility decreased. He became a great fan of audio books, especially on the topic of United States history.
Ever the Kirklander, Ernie spent his last days at the Gene and Irene Wockner Hospice care center, a part of Evergreen Hospital. He died peacefully in the town where he was born, and under the care of medical complex he helped to build. He is survived by a sister, Helena Kirkwood, his children Craig, Connie, Barry and Margaret Mckibben, and five grandchildren. He will be dearly missed.
Memorial services will be held on Tuesday, November 22, at 2 pm, at Emerald Heights Retirement Community, 10901 176th Circle NE in Redmond. All are welcome to come and share their memories of Ernie.
The family suggests any gifts in Ernie’s memory be sent to the “Emerald Heights Trail Fund” at the address above.