Gary Lee Gaggens

Gary Lee Gaggens was born to Ora and Joann Gaggens in April 1954. He was a longtime resident of Anacortes and a recent resident of Mount Vernon. He passed away suddenly of heart complications on March 14, 2022, at the age of 67.

Gary attended Mt. Erie Elementary School, Anacortes Middle School and graduated from Anacortes High School in 1972. He proudly played baseball, basketball and football for four years as an Anacortes Seahawk and received many sports awards along the way including Hall of Fame for football. In his senior year alone, he was the shortstop on the baseball team; quarterback on the football team; and was also a point guard on, and captain of, the basketball team.

He made his career serving others and went on to receive an Associate degree in Human Services, with Honors, from Skagit Valley College in 1997. He worked at Secret Harbor for 28 years and held several positions including: Child Care Worker, Child Care Supervisor, Substance Abuse Counselor, Foster Parent at the Transition House while working on the Island as a Chemical Dependency Counselor (meaning he pretty much cared for kids 24 hours per day), and finally, Director of Macdonald Cottage Drug and Alcohol Program. During his career at Secret Harbor, he earned the title Childcare Worker of the Year from a nationally recognized organization. In 2003 Gary received the Directors Award in recognition of exemplary employee performance. He worked for Educational Service District #189 for 12 years in the following positions: Educational Advocate/Case Manager of Youth Re-engagement Program, Denney Juvenile Justice Center, and Chemical Dependency Clinical Supervisor. For the past three years he was employed at Samish Indian Nation as its Social Services Director and then Prevention/Intervention Specialist.

Gary was very active in the service of his Lord as well and was Recovery Pastor at Fidalgo Community Church in Anacortes; Counseling Pastor at Citipoint Church, and was an Elder at Radius Church, both in Mount Vernon. He established and led Celebrate Recovery programs at Fidalgo Community Church, and Citipoint Church for 10 years.

Gary was preceded in death by his father, Ora.

Gary leaves behind the love of his life and wife of 20 years, Denise; his son Derek Ralph and wife Brianna; grandchildren Cedric, Alex, and Eli; mother, Joanne Gaggens; sister, Cheryl Renstrom and her husband Kirk; nephew, Adam Franz; niece, Tiffany Franz; and grandniece, Kaida Stull.

Services will be held at Bethany Covenant Church in Mount Vernon at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 26.

In lieu of flowers, Gary would hope that we perform a random act of kindness in remembrance of him.