Editors note: Kelley Balcomb-Bartok is the son of Ken Balcomb and nephew of Howard Garrett, two key participants in this story and efforts to return the whale in this report to the Pacific Northwest, and was also involved in efforts to release her during the 90s.
Washington State’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors state residents who lost their lives or are missing-in-action during the Vietnam War. Built in the 1980s, the current memorial is actually the second Vietnam War memorial on campus.
On February 5, 2020 Washington lost Sidney (“Sid”) McAlpin, who had led the Washington State Archives as State Archivist from 1963 to 1994. Mike Saunders broke the sad news to Secretary of State’s office employees in an email, writing that, “To those of us who worked in the State Archives in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Sid was not only our leader, he was [a] friend and a mentor.”