By Bill Reynolds
La Conner Community News
Duane Holmes rarely gets a full night’s sleep. It’s not from worry, but because the innovative retired engineer and physicist is constantly mulling new ideas to meet community needs.
Others can rest assured, it turns out, when the Shelter Bay resident is kept awake.
Holmes, whose generous financial support last year allowed the La Conner Sunrise Food Bank to secure the historic Garfield Masonic Lodge Building, is now drafting several options for the local pantry’s use of the two-story structure’s second floor.
Those concepts come to him at all hours of the day — and night.
“He’s always looking for solutions to things,” said food bank director Arin Magill. “Duane doesn’t sleep much because his mind is always working. He dedicates so much of his time thinking of ways to help people.”
Because of Holmes’ tireless commitment to the food bank’s success and the well-being of others, he has been tabbed as guest of honor at the La Conner Rotary Club’s Harvest Dinner and Auction, set for 5:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Aug. 29 at Maple Hall.
“It would be difficult to find anyone who is more quietly enthusiastic about helping people,” La Conner Rotarian Audrey Gravley said of Holmes. “Duane is a multitalented guy who loves to share his passions.
“The Rotary Club of La Conner is thrilled to honor Duane for making positive and lasting change in our community,” she said.
Holmes grew up in Mount Vernon and as a youth made his mark at roller rinks near and far as a competitive skater. But he didn’t skate through his schoolwork, excelling as a student through hard work and a knack for mathematics and physics, first at Mount Vernon High and later at Whitman College and the University of Massachusetts.
Holmes earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Whitman, a private liberal arts campus in Walla Walla renowned for its rigorous academics. While there, he came under the tutelage of professor Walter Brattain, a Whitman alum and Nobel Prize winner for his role in inventing the point-contact transistor, a foundational development leading to home computing.
“We wouldn’t have the personal computer without that,” Holmes said of Brattain’s work at the famed Bell Labs in New Jersey.
Holmes parlayed his undergrad studies at Whitman into a masters program at UMass. Upon completion of his advanced degree, Holmes was ready at the dawn of the 1970s to join the high-tech world that had emerged in the Bay Area, the still formative years of what came to be known as Silicon Valley.
“There was lots of stuff going on there,” recalled Holmes, who was hired as a physicist with the Ultec Division of Perkin-Elmer in Palo Alto, focusing on electron-beam instrumentation. He subsequently spent three decades with the Coates and Welter Instrument Corp. and Nanometrics Inc., where his work on scanning electron microscope design led to a half-dozen patents.
A self-described generalist, Holmes subsequently proved his versatility by seamlessly transitioning into the construction field. He was a project engineer and superintendent for Hagengen Pacific Construction, also in the Bay Area.
He took the lead on construction of a branch library in San Jose and the remodel of a two-story recreation center in San Francisco, adding an entirely new section to the latter complex, which featured a gymnasium and Olympic-sized swimming pool.
In 2010, Holmes returned home to the Skagit Valley, settling in Shelter Bay, where he and his wife, Mary, continue to reside.
His retirement has been an active one.
Holmes has delved further into a lifelong interest in genealogy by enabling hundreds of people to find their roots.
It’s a hobby that Magill said Holmes pursues with as much energy as he did as an engineer and physicist.
“He puts his extensive research together in organized binders,” Magill said. “He can take a few details and within a couple hours be off and running. He’s very generous with his time, helping people discover their lineage. It’s such a great gift for people.”
Holmes last year made what many consider the greatest of his many gifts.
In 2025, with the food bank’s lease set to expire on its longtime Third and Benton site, Holmes stepped forward to help acquire the building and prevent one of the community’s most valued assets from having to relocate.
Nor did Holmes stop there, Magill said.
“He started coming up with ideas and concepts for new inside freezer locations,” she said. “He does all this for the good of our facility. Duane has literally helped open doors to new possibilities for us.”
Magill said it wasn’t long after moving to Shelter Bay that Holmes lent his energy to the food bank mission.
“He was our treasurer for many years,” said Magill. “He has helped with all kinds of logistics. Duane has spent a lot of time thinking about what could be done with this space.”
Magill said it’s his problem-solving ability that stands out most.
“He has an engineer’s mind,” she said. “He’s a great idea person.”
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
