Some called him "Mr. West Seattle," while many simply called him their friend. A year has passed since veteran West Seattle Herald reporter
Tim St. Clair died. It was a Monday night, Feb. 25 when Tim, 57, lost his battle to pancreatic cancer. A Morgan Park resident, he worked for the paper for nearly 20 years.

Tim was born in Tooele, Ut., 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. He was active in the Boy Scouts and loved to garden. He attended University of Washington and worked for the late U.S. Rep. Wayne Owens, the western state coordinator for both Robert and Edward Kennedy's' presidential campaigns.

Tim was his aide and wrote a speech for the congressman during the Watergate hearings that was televised. Tim also worked for former Utah Gov. Scott Matheson, and continued a close friendship with the governor's sons, Scott, Jr., and Jim. Scott is a former United States attorney in Utah. Jim is a congressman.

Tim's father, Edwin, was a combat engineer in General Patton's Third Army in France, Belgium and Germany. He would battle Tim over his son's protests against Vietnam while Tim was in college, but later acknowledged he was influenced by Tim's anti-war position.

"It makes me weep- for the loss of a remarkable journalist in our local world and for the joy in having him aboard the Herald hay ride for so many years," said Herald Publisher Jerry Robinson, who would sometimes refer to Tim as "The Saint."

Some West Seattle residents want to honor Tim's memory by naming the soon-to-be-completed park at Morgan Junction "Tim St. Clair Park." It sits on former monorail property and is yet to be named. One roadblock is that the Parks Department requires a person be deceased for three years before it considers naming a park after that person.

Exceptions have been made, and a petition is now circulating to request such an exception in Tim's case.

"We want to get several thousand signatures," said Pete Spalding, of the Delridge Neighborhood District Council, who has teamed up with Morgan Community Association’s Steve Sindiong, Chas Redmond, and Cindi Barker, to present the petition to area City Council member and Parks committee chair, Tom Rasmussen, who will then approach Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher.

The Southwest District Council has also partnered with Spalding's district on this push.

"We want to pay honor to Tim St. Clair's legacy," added Spalding. "We realize the tremendous benefit his reporting brought to the city and his neighborhood." Spalding said he and the others want to wrap up the signature drive at the April 4 "Gathering of Neighbors" event at the current Sealth High School location.

This forth annual event will be sponsored by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association.

PETITION TO NAME PARK IN MEMORY OF TIM ST. CLAIR

We the citizens of the peninsula of West Seattle hereby petition the City of Seattle and its Parks Department to take the following action. We request that the new park facility located at California Ave SW and SW Eddy St be named after Tim St. Clair.

Tim St. Clair for over two decades was a veteran reporter for the West Seattle Herald. Tim St. Clair was an influential force in our West Seattle community bringing light and scope to every major issue that happened in his years of service to our West Seattle community. Tim St. Clair was always the one you saw in the back of the room at any meeting be it a community council meeting, a public meeting on a transportation issue or on a parks issue. It is fitting that this new park stands on former Monorail property, which he thoroughly covered from transit station concept into a green space for the Morgan Junction neighborhood. In his lifetime Tim St. Clair had a passion for the outdoors and took every opportunity to explore the world around him, One of the things he loved was to help improve his environment here in West Seattle. This included being an advocate for our neighborhood parks.

Those of us signed below respectfully request that the City of Seattle’s Parks department join with us in approving the naming of the park at California Ave SW and SE Eddy St in memory of Tim St. Clair.

To sign petition, contact Pete Spalding at 4107 20th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98106 or contact bayouwonder@msn.com or call 206.579.4373