Kathleen Anne Schlichting Torson, whose Schlichting ancestors started farming in the Sherwood, Oregon, area in the 1870s, died August 6, 2025 in Burlington, Washington. She was 83.
Mrs. Torson, the daughter of Erwin Schlichting and Dorothy Young Schlichting, was born June 22, 1942 in Newberg, Oregon. She grew up on the family farm in Sherwood, Oregon, attending St. Paul Lutheran school and graduating from Sherwood High School.
She received a nursing degree from Good Samaritan School of Nursing in 1963, and worked at hospitals in Portland and Seattle, eventually retiring from Swedish Hospital in Seattle.
In 1971 she married Robert L. Torson, a Navy veteran who also was a nurse. Their shared enthusiasm for boats and sailing took them to Portland-area lakes as well as the Willamette and the Columbia rivers. They moved to Seattle and to bigger boats, eventually living aboard their large sailboat, docked at Shilshole Marina.
In 1991 they embarked on five-year round the world trip aboard their sailboat. In 1997 they moved to Newport, OR, where they switched from a sailboat to a sizable motorboat. The couple moved to Shelter Bay, Washington — and their last motorboat — in 2004. Bob Torson died in 2019.
Mrs. Torson is survived by her brothers Erwin and Ray Schlichting, her sisters-inlaw Martha Torson and Elanna Schlichting, nephew Aaron Schlichting (Jennifer Dean), great-nephews William and Oliver, and stepsons Brad and Curt Torson. She was predeceased by her parents and her brother Robert.
She also leaves behind numerous family members, friends, neighbors and caregivers, and Rosie, her much-loved dachshund.
At her request, there was no funeral or memorial service. She asked that her ashes join those of her beloved husband in the waters of Washington’s Deception Pass.
