The new small rock arrangement and plaque honoring former Superintendent Bill Mester at the Snohomish Aquatic Center.
SNOHOMISH — The new small rock arrangement and plaque honoring former Superintendent Bill Mester at the Snohomish Aquatic Center is something even he may have been too bashful to allow.
On March 23, about 100 colleagues and old friends came to a dedication for the late educator. The rock garden is to the left of the main doors.
His wife Fran Mester, also a retired lifelong educator, said Bill didn’t boast to others of getting Snohomish a new pool, even if he considered it part of his legacy. What gave him joy was seeing who uses it — a community of all ages.
Snohomish’s replacement pool was the unique piece of an unheard-of $262 million capital projects bond measure from 2008.
He had no prior knowledge on what an aquatic center needs, Fran Mester said. So he placed phone calls across the nation to learn what the best ones are, to find out who built those pools, and to see if they’d build one like that in Snohomish.
And once built, he called the best people to try to convince them to come work in it. Aquatic Center manager Chris Bensen uprooted her family after being convinced.
The Aquatic Center opened its doors January 2014. Two school years later, Mester retired from the superintendent’s office in 2016. He died Nov. 1, 2021 at age 73.
Fran and their children Josh and Gretchen flew from Maryland to attend Thursday’s dedication. The Masters are originally from Baltimore.
Correction, April 11, 2023: This story corrects that Supt. Mester retired in 2016.
