SMOKEY POINT — Chuck and Bea Randall moved to Arlington in the fall of 1967 because they wanted to raise their children in a small town.
“Chuck also wanted to be a biology teacher, so they couldn’t fire him if he had a bad season as a coach,” Bea told the Stillaguamish Senior Center Sept. 16, drawing laughter.
Although the senior center presented its 10th annual Community Lifetime Achievement Awards to the Randalls for their service to Arlington, Bea thanked Arlington in turn for welcoming them, thereby making their contributions to the community possible.
Chuck and Bea also worked for the city itself. Chuck became an emergency medical technician, one of only two in the volunteer ambulance service at the time, while Bea was elected to 20 years on the City Council, the last 10 as mayor pro-tem.
Born in an Oregon logging camp in 1939, Chuck had originally planned to return to logging after his first year of teaching in Arlington, but he and Bea liked the town so much that they stayed. His interest in biology was sparked by his boredom while policing the demilitarized zone in Korea during his stint in the Army, while his passion for mountain climbing was inherited from his father, Alvin. Chuck went on to climb Mount Rainier at the age of 14.
Just as Chuck took a class in track at the University of Washington, Bea took part in track in high school, although there was no interscholastic program for girls then. The two met at Everett Junior College, where Chuck turned out for track and football, and Bea was the only girl on Everett’s track team. Their first date was at a Seattle Mountaineers snow camping training at the top of Snoqualmie Pass, and they married in 1964.
Chuck was hired to teach biology at Arlington High School, and Bea was hired to teach second grade. But she only taught half the year because the first of their three sons was born that spring.
Chuck’s 1971 cross-country team won the Northwest AA league and district championships, and finished fourth at state. He was honored by the Northwest Interscholastic Activities Association with the Hal Moe Meritorious Award for his outstanding contribution and service after his retirement.
“I was grateful that they let us borrow those kids and treat them like our own,” Chuck said.
Bea coached the first interscholastic girls’ track team at AHS in 1971. She worked with the girls’ PE teacher to take the team to the second girls’ high school state meet, where Arlington won the championship.
Chuck also championed girls’ sports, allowing girls to participate with the boys’ cross-country team. That was not popular with other coaches in the league.
During Bea’s time coaching boys’ soccer, girls were introduced to the teams. The Arlington Soccer Club ultimately obtained a federal court injunction, which stipulated that other teams would have to forfeit their games, if they refused to play the Arlington coed teams. This led to more girls signing up for soccer, and eventually a girls’ league started.
During her time with the Arlington Boys & Girls Club, Bea also become a commissioner of a girls’ basketball league in Snohomish County. She recruited coaches in Arlington, Darrington and Stanwood, and when she couldn’t find a referee, she did it herself.
“Bea was acting mayor when a delegation from Moscow, Russia, visited to invite Arlington High School’s Jazzmine to visit,” Mayor Barbara Tolbert said. “She had to convince the Moscow mayor that she needed to ask the parents’ permission, because a mayor can’t order youth to participate in such an event in our system of government.”
Following retirement, Chuck and Bea both became active in the Centennial Trail Committee, and spent hundreds of hours creating the community garden near the Arlington Library. Chuck went to work part-time at Arlington Hardware, while Bea became a Master Gardner.
