The Sequim Pioneer Association’s mission is to select the Grand Pioneers and Honorary Pioneers, put on the Pioneer Dinner the Friday of the Irrigation Festival and to organize and put on the Pioneer Picnic in August. The individuals selected as Grand Pioneers and Honorary Pioneers represent the history that is so important to Sequim and the Irrigation Festival.Â
A Grand Pioneer is one who was born and lived most of their lives in Sequim.
Honorary Pioneers are those who have lived in Sequim for 40 years or more.
Grand Pioneer Doug McInnes
Doug McInnes was born in Sequim in 1929 to Rex and Elizabeth McInnes. He was raised on the family dairy farm at Jamestown Beach and went to school in Sequim. In 1952 Doug married Bonnie Robb, a Sequim farm girl and former Irrigation Festival Queen. Doug and Bonnie have three children, Steve, Barbara and David and 2 grandsons.
Grand Pioneer Tillie Campbell Baker
Tillie and her twin sister. Annie, were born to John and Mercedes Campbell on January 1, 1928. She married Wallace Norton in 1948 and they lived in Gardiner. Tillie and Wallace had 4 children, Wallace John, Mary Helen, Walter Albert and Ann Marie. She now has 2 grandsons and 5 granddaughters. In 1971 she married Warren Baker.
Tillie Campbell Baker passed away in May 2007.
Honorary Pioneer Bob McCrorie
Bob was born in 1928 in Alberta, Canada to Hugh and Elsie McCrorie. The family moved to the Sequim area in 1936. Bob married Eileen King in 1948. The couple has 6 children (Vicki, Bob, Janice, John, David and Katie), 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
Bob McCrorie passed away in June 2007.