Leslie 'Pat' Stusser, fund-raiser

Among Leslie "Pat" Stusser's gifts was a knack for hitting people up for money — for good causes.

Mr. Stusser, a leader in the Seattle Jewish community and a prolific fund-raiser, parted donors with their money by wielding a blend of dignity, dedication and nerve.

"Asking money from friends is a scary thing for many people," said Marlys Erickson, executive director of the Pike Place Market Foundation, which supports social-services programs for poor people who live downtown. "Pat was really fearless."

Mr. Stusser, 69, died Tuesday (Jan. 7) at home from complications from multiple myeloma.

The diagnosis came seven years ago, but Mr. Stusser, a private man, kept the news in his family until a couple of years ago. His kidneys eventually failed, and he received thrice-weekly dialysis treatments during the final six months of his life.

For four decades, Mr. Stusser and his older brother, Herb, worked for a wholesale electrical-supply-and-equipment company founded by their father in 1919. After the elder Stusser's death in 1964, the brothers ultimately expanded the business to include 12 locations and about 200 employees in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

They sold the family business to a California company in 1993, in part because few of the third-generation Stussers were interested in running it, Herb Stusser said.

In 1979, Mr. Stusser led efforts to conduct the first comprehensive count of the Seattle area's Jewish residents, who are not broken out separately in the federal census. The survey found that 19,000 Jews lived in the region at the time, a number that by 2000 had grown to 38,000, said Barry Goren, of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, where Mr. Stusser had served as a board member.

Mr. Stusser grew up in the Montlake neighborhood and graduated from Garfield High School. He majored in history at Stanford University and served as a lieutenant in the Air Force.

Mr. Stusser's wife, Helen, said her husband's many passions included the Seattle Mariners and baseball in general, travel, fishing and, above all, the couple's retreat home on Marrowstone Island in Jefferson County. Along with several buddies, Mr. Stusser had visited 32 baseball parks around the country since 1994.

"They kept building new ones, so he missed a few," Helen Stusser said.

Helen Stusser's grandparents were friends of Mr. Stusser's parents, so the two knew of each other as children. But it wasn't until Helen was 18 that she really got to know her future husband. They married in 1957 in the Olympic Hotel, where two of their daughters would later hold their weddings.

Today would have been the couple's 46th wedding anniversary.

The Stussers moved from their home on Mercer Island 17 years ago into Seattle's Watermark Tower. They bought their condominium from Paul and Pam Schell, when Seattle's future mayor was a developer.

Mr. Stusser enjoyed relatively good health for several years before his health deteriorated. He decided to stop his treatments at Swedish Medical Center on Dec. 31 and return home. He spent the next seven days receiving visitors and calling friends to say goodbye.

In addition to his wife and brother, Mr. Stusser is survived by three daughters: Cathy Stusser Davis, Laurie Stusser-McNeil and Mary Anne Stusser, all of Seattle; sons-in-law Phil Davis and K.C. McNeil; and five grandchildren.

Services were held at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle. The family requests that donations be made to the Pike Place Market Foundation, the Dr. Henry Kaplan Research Fund, c/o Swedish Tumor Institute or the Jennifer Rosen Meade Preschool at Temple De Hirsch Sinai.

Kyung M. Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com.