Lawrence (Larry) Bredin Daugert passed away on August 15th, 2024 in Lynden, WA, surrounded by family and friends. Larry was born on June 24th, 1946 in Princeton, NJ, the first of the four children of Stanley Daugert and Barbara, née Bredin. Barbara was the daughter of the noted Pennsylvania impressionist painter Rae Sloan Bredin, and Larry had fond memories of childhood vacations spent in the artist colony of New Hope, PA among his extended family. His early years were spent in the suburbs of Atlanta, his father being a philosophy professor at Oglethorpe University. In the neighborhood children’s gazette (of which he was naturally editor-in-chief), Larry’s lapidary and efficient prose was already on display. Following the nomination of his father as chair of the philosophy department at Western Washington University, the family moved to Bellingham in 1962. Larry attended Bellingham High School (graduating in the class of 1964) forming lifelong friendships and distinguishing himself as a member of the swim team. He enjoyed cruising the inside passage up to Alaska on friends’ commercial fishing boats. In Bellingham and Whatcom County, he had found the place where he would spend the rest of his life.
He earned his Bachelor’s from Cornell University. He passed the LSAT brilliantly without any particular preparation and was admitted to Stanford Law School. During those years, he never lost his connection to Bellingham, famously biking from Bellingham to Stanford one summer. Upon graduating Stanford in 1972 he returned to Bellingham and true to his independent spirit, founded his own law firm with Stanford classmate Dean Brett. For all of Larry’s career, he worked at his own firm (Brett & Daugert, then Brett Brinn Daugert Erickson & Williams, then Barron Smith Daugert), practicing property law, adoptions, and establishing himself as a staple of the local community.
In 1973, he married Sharon “Beth” Palmer, his high-school sweetheart, whom he divorced in 1977. That same year, he met Barbara Field and they were married on December 31st 1977, only 6 weeks after their first date at the Oyster Bar. He adopted Barbara’s son Simon and in 1979, his daughter Katie was born. The happy family first lived in the South Hill and Fairhaven neighborhoods, then moved to a more rural setting in the county outside Ferndale in 1991.
Larry was an expert birdwatcher and an animal lover, not hesitating to represent the Whatcom Humane Society pro bono when needed, and involved with the North Cascades Audubon Society. Larry’s passion for, and interest in birds, particularly their status and distribution in Whatcom County played an important role in local avian knowledge and conservation. He enjoyed playing bridge and was a longtime member of the Bellingham Duplicate Bridge Club. His chess playing skills were well known since his Stanford years. He was also a hiker (though not a mountaineer, following a precipitous realization on an ascent of Mt Shuksan) and a traveler, taking his family to Europe and East coast trips. He learned to ride horses so that he could join Barbara on horseback riding trips. He was a history buff, delighting in recounting the cunning tricks and strategies of past statesmen. He was also an art amateur. He had great interest in the art of the family of his grandfather Bredin and would himself dabble in sculpture. An avid reader, he would come back again and again to his favorite writings by Shakespeare, Truman Capote, Dante, Samuel Pepys or Jane Austen. He read untold numbers of books about Abraham Lincoln. He was also a generous host — the Daugert Christmas caroling parties are fondly remembered by many.
His later years were marked by disease
first a brain tumor, surgically removed in 2015, and later an insidious form of Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by his wife Barbara, his children Katie (husband Romain Franconville) and Simon, his brothers Fred and Steven, and predeceased by his sister Elizabeth (husband Walter Moore).
Larry was generous, loyal, demanding, witty to a fault, inquisitive, irreverent and impatient with injustice. His gaze could cut right through you. He will be dearly missed.
