Like all blessed Islanders, Whit Leschine will finally have his day on the post office door. Arriving on the island seven years ago and loving our small town customs, Sandy and Whit Leschine joked with some trepidation and wonder about the day they might find their photo on the post office window. For Whitney Leschine that day has come.

He parted this world Feb. 11 at age 81, in his apartment in Friday Harbor with family by his side.

He came a long way to get here. He was born in New Jersey in 1935 and slowly moved west, spending his formative years in Pennsylvania attending college at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Chicago.

It was in Chicago where he met his bride of 53 years, Sandy, and raised two children, building close relationships with his in-laws in the Midwest. He had many travels in his job as a computer analyst, to Amsterdam, Taiwan and throughout the states, and with his time in the military service, throughout Europe.

In the last decade of his life he and Sandy made their pilgrimage to Friday Harbor to be closer to daughter, Gail Leschine-Seitz and her husband Jeff, and their granddaughter Thea Rose. The rural life was an adventure for them: dirt roads, power outages, ferry travel and transitional housing were among fodder for good stories and letters back home, and helped them maintain humility and a good sense of humor.

Whitney truly loved life: music, sports, family, reading, the New York Times crossword, The Chicago Bears and ever-baffling current events.

He will truly be missed by those that knew him, and his kindness and sense of humor will be long remembered. Postings of memories can be made at www.evanschapel.com.