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| Home HuckleberryHill Petrich's Piano Shop Petrich's Piano Shop Who is Dean Petrich? Photos of Dean Customer Comments Piano Article Services Tuning & Repairing Piano Moving Pianos Hauled Away Piano Rentals FREE Pianos! Articles Hearing Tuning Stability Contact Petrich's Piano Shop Dean Petrich 2131 Middle Drive Freeland, WA 98249-9516 Fax: (240) 250-5895 Cell: (206) 406-6446 Work: (206) 324-5055 Home: (360) 730-7992 petrich@whidbey.com |
.Elementary School Dean Petrich was born September 15, 1950 in Seattle. He started piano lessons in kindergarten. Every week for the next six years Dean and his sister Dawn took swimming lessons. His second grade teacher taught square dancing. In third grade he won a crossword-puzzle-making contest and began cutting out articles from the newspapers on pollution and transportation issues. By fourth grade Dean was in cub scouts, began playing the violin, taught himself how to type, and wrote, directed and starred in his first play. Starting from a library book, he performed his first of many magic shows. By fifth grade he was first violin in the orchestra and had learned to play the violin on his head, behind his back, under his leg and in his mouth; he sang soprano in the choir; wrote and produced another play; had developed a keen interest in the weather and had developed the knack of correctly predicting it; and was performing magic professionally. In sixth grade Dean wrote yet another play, did more magic, continued with both piano and violin, completed all his cub scout achievements, and began downhill snow skiing. By now he could type over 80 words a minute. He also was a loyal member of the traffic safety patrol, was a dishwasher in the lunch room, and ran for student body president. From the age of eight to sixteen he spent his summers at Hendersons' Camps, where he learned archery, riflery, horseback riding, swimming, woodworking, camp crafts, folk dancing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, theatrics, story-telling, baking, Indian lore, pottery, and the skills of comradeship. During the summer between sixth and seventh grade Dean worked at a musical summer camp. His job was to tune 78 violins during each recess, to assist the school director with set-up, and occasionally he got to conduct the orchestra. At the end of the camp he performed in front of the everyone there by playing his violin in various positions.. . As a freshman, he took a double load of courses. For the first day physical fitness test he did 32 consecutive pull-ups. He continued with French, played a comedy violin routine in front of the entire student body, and joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity. At Willamette at that time, Kappa Sigma was a group of intellectuals -- the key school leaders in politics, publications, drama, art, music, and high grades. Throughout his four years there, Dean sang tenor twice a day in two different choirs, a madrigal group, and his own barbershop quartet. He performed in every play, musical and opera. His freshman year he was Stage Manager. During his sophomore year he excelled in astronomy and public speaking -- two of his most favorite classes -- choreographed and performed several modern dance pieces, and took two year's worth of German in one year. As the Yearbook Editor, he not only personally shot and developed almost every photograph in the book (and got almost every professor to smile), typed the majority of the text and layout (no computers back then!) and designed the format, but he also compiled one of the most complete archives of the year's events, including groups who were normally never considered for inclusion in the yearbook. That summer the Willamette Choir toured Europe for five weeks, and Dean could speak the language of every country they visited. After they went home, Dean stayed and hitch-hiked around Europe on his own for another month, ending up in Sweden where he revisited his host family. During his junior year he was the Darkroom Manager. Between his junior and senior years he attended summer school at the University of Washington, where he took 25 hours of classes on elementary education, psychology, 19th century English literature, Shakespeare, and teaching elementary science. During this summer of total immersion into academics Dean began a prolific journal of his thoughts and comments on life, which now is the first of many volumes of writings. As a senior, he took a year's worth of Russian, graduated a half year early, and spent the second semester teaching five separate and totally unique classes of high school English at McNary High in Salem, OR. Also during these four years, Dean always had a camera around his neck, knew every person on campus by name, and was very active in the Big Brother program, having not one but two little brothers himself. Five of his summers were spent as a staff member at Camp Nor'wester on Lopez Island. As vice president of Omicron Delta Kappa, a very selective leadership fraternity, he conceived of and instigated the first recycling program the school had ever had. Every year he won the intramural cross-country race. He marched against the war on Viet Nam and joined Ralph Nader's ORSPIRG, The Nature Conservancy, and Greenpeace, and many other environmental organizations. He got all the way through college without ever having smoked a cigarette, without drinking any alcohol, without doing drugs, and without swearing. . The only reason Dean returned home was to prepare for his next adventure: a summer at Arcosanti. While at Arcosanti, he read, studied and led discussions on Paolo Soleri's writings and concepts. He stayed beyond his workshop date and became an active leader, tour guide, and construction worker. On his way home, he arranged to speak on Paolo's arcologies at a number of Universities, for pay. . The next call that came for a magician, Dean suggested coming as a clown, not really knowing anything about what to do; he just knew that he had always been good at being silly and making children laugh. At the party they played jump rope, walk the tight rope, tie up the clown, he told a story, helped with the cake and presents, and an hour and a half later the mother happily paid him the $5 he had asked for. It worked! Deano the Clown was born. Now he realized he needed to learn more skills and to find more customers. Subsequently, he joined the New Games Foundation, the Seattle Story Tellers Guild, The American Unicycling Society, the Uniques (a local unicycling club), the Cascade Jugglers, the Puppeteers of Puget Sound, he took up tap dancing, roller skating and ice skating, and got his "D" license in sky diving so he could jump into picnics and large events. Deano took a class in doing voice-overs, and took private lessons from "Dave the Balloon Man", who at the time was by far the best balloon twister around. Dean attended several week-long games training sessions sponsored by the New Games Foundation; his four favorites were in Vancouver, B.C.; Colorado; Carmel, CA; and Redmond, WA. Also during this time Dean passed his Associate and his Freestyle status with PSIA, had a special ski clown suit made, and spent several seasons as a ski instructor at Mt. Pilchuck. He was in high demand for teaching children to ski. Living in the attic in Bellevue was getting a bit cramped, so he quit, got an apartment in Seattle, and worked in a portrait photography studio on Pier 70. Here his job was to take small photographs that were mailed in from all over the country and to blow them up into large 3'x5' posters by photographing, developing, printing and mailing them to the mail-order customers, as well as photographing walk-ins and printing up poster portraits for them while they waited. After a half year working for someone else, Dean decided to be 100% self-employed. He systematized his photography equipment and supported himself primarily as a freelance photographer, shooting mostly portraits, as well as weddings, daycare centers, and occasional models. He was unusually good with children and animals. To augment his skills, he took special classes from professional studios on the fine points of portrait photography. During these next couple years he was also a manager at the Capitol Hill Food Co-op on 12th in Seattle. The brakes went out on the car his grandfather had given him as a graduation present, and he decided to go for an entire year without driving a car. He bought a second-hand bicycle and trailer, joined the PAC of the Cascade Bicycle Club, and successfully did all his travel for an entire year by bicycle. He initiated the "bicycles on buses" program, did several talk series on KRAB radio, and submitted numerous designs and had many meetings with METRO until the bike racks actually materialized on the buses. He was also active in the expansion of the Burke-Gilman Trail, Rails to Trails, and mapping bicycle routes. . While living in a group house in Seattle, Dean became a member of the extreme "Zero Garbage Club," refusing to pay the mandatory garbage bill because his house produced no garbage. By gathering free wood from city dumpsters, his house was heated by burning wood in the old central coal furnace in the basement. He continued as a manager at the Capitol Hill Food Coop, and grew part of what he ate in his own back yard. The summer of 1977 he was the music director at Camp Nor'wester, and on his way home he stopped to visit two different friends on Whidbey Island. At the first friend's house he spent an afternoon sitting on the porch with his journal, designing the ultimate bathroom and how it would fit into a totally environmental house. Little did he realize at the time that this design would become reality At the next friend's house where he sat playing his fiddle around the fire with two other fiddlers, the other fiddler told him about a piece of land for sale. Taking all his earnings from working at the camp, he made his down payment the next day and had plans of putting up a tipi there. Back in Seattle, Dean partnered with a man who was building composting toilets out of ferrous cement on Indian reservations. From this experience, Dean wrote Clivus Multrum and became a distributor. In 1977 he bought his own Clivus Multrum for the main waste system of his future house on Whidbey Island. . From 1972 through the mid 80's he taught classes at the University of Washington Experimental College every quarter. Some of his more popular topics were: "Improve Your Memory," "How To Improve Your Conversation," "Paolo Soleri's Arcologies," "Why We Laugh," "The Joys and Woes of Being Self-Employed," and "New Games." Also during this time and for the next eight consecutive years he spent every Sunday evening dancing Israeli and Greek circle and line dances when he returned home from skiing. To get around, his favorite mode of transportation was to drive his PPV (people-powered vehicle) which had adjustable bucket seats, stick gear shift, rear view mirrors, and pedals for both the driver and the passenger. There was space in the back for fuel -- a bag of groceries. Also during this period he spent a year seriously studying Swedish massage, which for a while seemed as if this would become his calling. In addition, he took an in-depth class in foot reflexology. Although he was qualified to take and pass the Washington State exam for a professional massage license, his clowning career was beginning to bloom and whisked him off in other directions. Because of his energy and talent and his interest in social, political and environmental issues, Dean became the host on a weekly KING TV quiz show called "The Great American Game", in which two teams were pitted against each other to answer questions on local issues. . For the next twenty consecutive years he envited everyone he knew (and that's a lot of people) to his famous annual week-long birthday bash. These parties became quite famous. Each year something different was highlighted, such as swimming, musicians, jugglers, improvisational theater sports, marionettes, stunt fiddling, unusual inflatables, woods games, story telling, waking to live harp music, and even a pie fight. One year Dean sky-dived into his yard ten times in one day with some of his sky-diving friends. . Then he returned to Sweden for his third time, where he visited the Clivus Multrum factory in Stockholm and met Mr. Lindstrom himself, the inventor of the Clivus Multrum, at his house on his 81st birthday. He gave Dean a personal tour of all his original inventions. He was quite excited to have any visitors at all, let alone an American who could speak Swedish and who knew about his toilets. From there Dean revisited his exchange family in Sweden, went sky diving and snow skiing in Sweden, and realized that the one thing he still hadn't done was to marry and have children. . Lynda opened her own store, called Llynya's in Freeland. Her dream was to own her own store, and now she has it. She surrounds herself with all of her favorite things and attracts wonderful people into her life. Her store has become a focal point on south Whidbey for personal and spiritual growth. She has been trained to perform Aqua Chi, a unique type of foot therapy that removes toxins from the body. Lynda is extremely honest, dedicated, and is a phenomenal listener. She is dedicated and committed helping others, and consequently she has gained much respect in the local community and receives countless compliments on herself and her store. She is so artistic that everything she touches becomes beautiful. Micah has put time into learning to skate board, to snowboard, to ride a unicycle, to play the piano and to play the electric guitar. During June of 2003 Dean and Micah traveled together to Sweden to visit the family Dean had lived with when he was 16. Micah attended the Langley Children's Center (preschool), Wellington Montessori School, Langley Intermediate School, Langley Middle School, Langley High School, and Bayview Alternative School. He attended Camp Nor'wester on Johns Island for three summers. Micah is thoughtful and perceptive, uniquely creative, easy-going and congenial, has excellent eye contact, and shares a positive sense of humor. Now he is out of school, living with Llynya, and is starting his own pressure-washing business. He has many friends. Businesses
Mark Twain once said that
the best investment a person
can make is a friend. Please feel free to contact me and keep
in
touch. Dean's email is petrich@whidbey.com.
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