Benjamin Franklin Pope
July 6, 1976 – October 9, 2015
Ben Pope, of Friday Harbor, died in Seattle on October 9, 2015 from therapeutic complications due to advanced lung cancer. He was 39 years old. Ben was born and raised in Friday Harbor, and attended preschool, elementary school, and middle school on the island. Ben’s sweetness, humor, and good nature earned him a wide and strong circle of friends, with whom he was close for the rest of his life. He loved his island childhood: playing baseball, roaming the island, and especially spending as much time as he could with his friends.
Ben graduated from Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, another place where he made lifelong friends and did plenty of playing. After a year or two of exploring the world with friends, including an amazing trip to Thailand, Ben settled on welding as his chosen career. He was hired out of the Bellingham Tech welding program before he completed it. However, he insisted that his welding experience had taught him all he needed to know, and persuaded the school to let him take his exams without completing the accompanying classes. He passed with flying colors and got his degree on his own terms.
Ben loved working for Ries Niemi, whose designs allowed him to work on a variety of municipal projects. He built “The Play” above the entrance to Safeco Field as well as all the gates to the field. He built custom metal installations in Seattle, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, to name just a few, and built Ries’s line of fanciful metal furniture.
In 2003, Ben moved back to Portland to be close to his nephews and continued to weld for various commercial establishments, from a brewery to an aerospace parts company. He had a side job as a wrangler for an electric bull at a country bar: when the bull broke down every Saturday night, Ben was there to fix it. But what he loved best was the freelance custom metal work that he did from time to time. In June of 2009, Ben and his longtime partner, Katie Heeb, had a son, Henry Pope. Henry was Ben’s greatest joy. Two years later, Ben and Katie returned to Friday Harbor so they could raise Henry in the place they both loved. Ben relished the variety of projects his friends and neighbors brought to him and was so happy to be living on the island again with most of his closest friends around him.
In June of 2015, after many months of undiagnosed pain, Ben was found to have advanced lung cancer with a dismal prognosis. As always, Ben concerned himself with the feelings of those around him, bringing his humor and love to his family and friends, and especially to Henry. Ben died as he lived, surrounded by the loving faces of a huge number of family and friends. Ben is preceded in death by his dad, Sam Pope, and he leaves behind his partner Katie and son Henry of Friday Harbor; his mom Anne and stepfather Bill Greene, sister Mary Wells and Bryce, Sam, and Asa Gartrell of Portland; uncle and aunt Chris and Betsy Pope of Friday Harbor; Katie’s sister Jennifer Heeb of Friday Harbor; Katie’s parents Kathy and Hank Heeb of Black Diamond, the entire extended family of Popes and Heebs, and a wonderful host of friends who supported Ben and his family throughout this past year. There will be a gathering to honor the richness of Ben’s life and loves on Nov. 14 at the Historic Howard Homestead Barn in Friday Harbor.
