Alice C. Fraser

Bellingham, WA Alice Fraser, age 102, of Bellingham Washington, passed away peacefully at her home on May 25, 2014. Born on August 27, 1911 in Howard Lake, Minnesota, to Dan and Mary Elizabeth Cowgill, Alice spent most of her life in Bellingham. Alice graduated from Whatcom High School [now Whatcom Middle School] in 1929, and received her teaching certificate at the Washington State Normal School at Bellingham, a teachers college for women. She taught briefly in Ferndale, North Whatcom County. Alice met her husband-to-be, Gordon “Bus” Fraser while in high school, and they were married on June 6, 1934. Bus and Alice, deeply devoted to one another, were married for 70 years until his passing in 2004. Alice and her husband were avid supporters of higher education. In 1995, Fraser Hall at Western Washington University was dedicated to them for their generous contribution to The Western Foundation; and to this day, Fraser Hall remains a vital educational space for Western Washington University students. After a devastating fire that ruined Whatcom Middle School in 2009, Alice was a deeply honored ribbon-cutter at the dedication and reopening ceremony of Whatcom Middle School in 2011. Alice had just celebrated her 100th birthday at the time of the ribbon cutting, and surrounded by current students on the marble steps of her alma mater, she was presented as the oldest living graduate of Whatcom High School. Alice was a long-standing member of the Bellingham Country Club and a dedicated patron of the Whatcom Symphony. Alice Fraser is survived by her sister-in-law Jeanne Simonds of Bellevue; nephews Robert Cowgill of VA, Thomas McBeath of CA, and James McBeath of WA; nieces Barbara McBeath of WA, Mary Ann Callinsky of WA, Kimberly Simpson of AL, Kit Owens of WA, Jan Stone Shannon of WA; and goddaughters Lynn Metsger of AZ, Susan Lacy of WA, and Heidi Dubrey of OR. We wish to extend a special thanks to close friends, Peggy Adkinson, Grace Garrett, Joann Rothhausen, Roger Hutchens, and Ron Wilson. Her family and friends will always remember Alice Fraser as an extraordinary individual; Alice embodied a keen intelligence, genuine kindness, generosity of spirit, unfailing humor and wit, and a deeply loving persona. No funeral services are planned. Alice will be interned beside her husband Bus, and her parents at Greenacres Memorial Park in Ferndale, WA.

Alice C. Fraser

August 27, 1911 - May 25, 2014