Sequim Irrigation Festival

Each year the Grand Marshal is selected by the Irrigation Festival Committee as someone who has made significant contributions to the community.

Bob and Elaine Caldwell both grew up in upstate New York. During their time together they have had the opportunity to live all over the country and in India. They have two daughters, Margot and Janette, and 4 grandchildren. Their oldest grandchild is about to graduate from high school.

Elaine started teaching junior high school in 1961. Bob was a soil and water conservation specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They fell in love with the Pacific Northwest many years ago and had an opportunity to move to Portland in 1980. They retired in 1994 and moved to Sequim.

With his agricultural background Bob was asked to be a part of the county growth management efforts and to help examine options for protecting the county’s rich farmland. Through that work Bob and his colleagues decided to bring in the power of non-profits and foundations and thus Friends of the Fields was formed. It was incorporated in late 1999 and received non-profit status in 2000. So far they have protected 151 acres of farmland through a perpetual easement so that it will be farmland forever.

Elaine enjoys painting and started painting sets for the theatre. When they had to move out of Howard Wood Theatre, she was instrumental in the purchase of the church that now houses Olympic Theatre Arts (OTA). She did the fundraising to raise the down payment for the building and land. OTA bought the building in 2001 and moved into the building in 2003. The campaign to renovate it started right away. Code conflicts led to a closure in 2006 and it took three years to complete enough of the renovations to be able to move back into the theatre in September 2009. Bob and Elaine are in awe of the number of people and businesses that came together to make these renovations possible. Elaine feels that a “lot of things have happened over the last few years to keep hope alive and there were many mini-miracles of giving that kept it going”.

Bob stepped in to manage the construction of the theatre renovation after the closure and is the chair of the building committee for OTA. Bob got involved in building sets for the theatre and likes doing it because “it gives him a chance to do create without having to obtain building permits”.

Bob and Friends of the Fields have been instrumental in getting the Community Organic Garden started. It all started when two high school students wanted Bob’s help to save farmland for an ecology club project. Because that is a complicated and lengthy process they focused instead on helping to create a local organic food supply. The Community Garden project was born from that request.

Bob and Elaine both have a long list of other accomplishments and causes they support. They include the Sequim Community Foundation, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, First Choice Professionals, Dungeness River Management Team, Dungeness Irrigation Group, Peninsula Evangelical Friends Church and much more. They work tirelessly for the community, the arts, saving farmland and supporting and encouraging a better way of life in Sequim. They were named Citizen of the Year for 2006.

When asked how they feel about being named Grand Marshal for the Sequim Irrigation Festival, they said they are “humbled, honored and having a good time”. As Bob says though, “you may be a peacock today but tomorrow you may be the feather duster”.