Colleen G. Castner passed on August 2, 2024 at the age of 95 in Des Moines, WA. She was born and raised in Iowa. After graduating from Iowa State University she married William Castner and they began raising their family in Webster City, IA. William passed a few months after their 70th wedding anniversary. Colleen was the driving force in the family moving to Seattle in 1961. Except for a few years in the early 1970s when the family moved to Portland, she lived in the Seattle area since 1961.
Colleen was a loving mother and grandmother who always made time in her busy schedule for her children and grandchildren and fully supported their needs and activities. She met her first great grandchild just a few days before she passed.
As her children were leaving for college, Colleen returned to school to earn a teaching certificate and then began a teaching career where she taught many different courses in the Highline School District. She was an innovative educator in the 1970’s, teaching life skills to Evergreen High School students. Her classes were popular with the girls and boys and included balancing a checkbook as well as cooking and sewing. Most importantly she taught child psychology, and her students volunteered in a kindergarten class. She moved to Highline High School and continued to teach a range of home and family life classes.
Colleen was an avid gardener and reader as well as active in a wide range of arts and crafts activities (knitting, quilting, sewing, weaving, pottery, painting, etc.). Her gardening included vegetables, fruits, and all sorts of plants and trees. Her raspberry patch at the beach house was particularly popular with her grandkids. Her children knew if the weather was nice and you needed to find Mom she would be outside gardening. When she wasn’t gardening her nose would be in a book or she would be working on one of her art projects.
Colleen was preceded in death by her husband William, sister Jo Anne, brother-in-law Robert, granddaughter Jeanne and niece Rebecca. She is survived by her son David (Beverly), daughters Julie (Peter) and Ann, grandsons James, Marek and Ross (Audrey), granddaughter Sarah, nieces Elizabeth and Anna, and great grandson Jamie.