Glazier Gene Dunscomb, 70, Left Stamp On Region's Windows

Whether it was stained-glass church windows, cracked storefront glass or a single pane shattered by a line drive, Gene "Cougar" Dunscomb helped the world appreciate the sunlight and see a little more clearly.

Mr. Dunscomb, a longtime member of the Glaziers Architectural Metal and Glass Union Local 188 in Seattle, left his stamp on buildings and houses throughout the area during his 30-plus-year career. He installed and repaired windows for Eastside Glass, Parker Henry Glass and Store Fronts.

Not long before he retired in 1987, he put in the windows of the only high-rise he worked on, Seattle's Columbia Tower.

"Just do a good job and do it neatly," was his work motto, recalled his wife, Charlotte Dunscomb.

Mr. Dunscomb died Tuesday of cardiac arrest. He was 70.

Although Mr. Dunscomb tried his hand at other jobs throughout his life - including a failed cougar-hunting scheme that bagged him his nickname - he always came back to glass work, his wife said.

His career as a glazier was launched in the 1950s when a friend taught him how to make and repair intricate leaded-glass church windows.

"I designed them; he built them," his wife said, adding that Mr. Dunscomb worked on churches throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Born in 1925 in Carlyle, Grays Harbor County, Mr. Dunscomb was raised in Tacoma where he attended Lincoln High School. He left to serve in the Navy's submarine service during World War II.

He and his wife met "over the counter" at a restaurant in Tacoma where she waited tables and Mr. Dunscomb would come for breakfast.

Charlotte Dunscomb recalls her husband as a talkative, witty man.

"He never shut up," she said. "You could talk to him about everything. And Gene made people laugh. People just loved him."

The couple married in 1947, moved to Seattle two years later and raised three children.

"We both hunted and fished and dug clams and did things with our children outdoors," Charlotte Dunscomb said, adding that they "never missed an opening day of the old Rainiers baseball team."

Avid saltwater anglers, the Dunscombs frequently sailed up to Canada in their 17-foot pleasure boat to fish.

Mr. Dunscomb was a member of the former Olympic Heights Community Club in West Seattle where he coached Pee Wee baseball. Since 1963, the Dunscombs made their home in Boulevard Park.

Along with his wife, Dunscomb is survived by son Ward Dunscomb of Port Angeles, daughters Laura Dorr of Lynnwood and Shawn Berns of Everett, and six grandchildren.

A private service will be held this month when the family will scatter his ashes over his favorite salmon fishing hole in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Cardiac Care Unit of Children's Hospital & Medical Center, P.O. Box 5371, Seattle, WA 98105.