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Duane Paul Sammons was a man of many dimensions. He was a civic leader, an insurance entrepreneur, a seventh-degree black belt in karate, a musician and – most importantly – a man who held family and community in the highest regard.

Many know Sammons from his role as the Ski to Sea executive director from 1973 to 1990. He’s largely responsible for adding the Ski to Sea race to the Blossom Time Festival Grand Parade – now the Memorial Day Parade. Others may know him as the sensei of Bellingham Academy Self Defense – also known as the “karate church” on the corner of High and Maple Street. He also owned several insurance businesses, including the Duane Sammons Insurance Center, and was a drummer for the Bathtub Gin Party Band.

A 2009 headshot of Sammons. Photo courtesy: Aubrey Kornelis.

“He never mixed any of them,” says his granddaughter Aubrey Kornelis. “So if you saw him in his gi or at the dojo, and he was training you as a sensei, he didn’t talk about insurance. This was this, and that was that.”

Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1936, Sammons and his family moved to Seattle when he was young. He was the only boy of four siblings. He would later graduate from the University of Washington in 1960 with a masters in psychology.

“He knew he needed to take care of his sisters,” says Kornelis. “Family has always come first to him. The karate was to defend his sisters. The insurance – he went into that to make money, to have stability. And I think he knew that really, psychology – there wasn’t any money in it, but he was a very brilliant man … he could bring out the best in you because he would listen.”

He met Patty, his first wife, in Seattle and had two daughters: Taylor (Kornelis’ mother) and Stacey. They also had a son, who died in a car accident at 15.

Sammons, a 7th-degree black belt, in his full sensei garb. Photo courtesy: Aubrey Kornelis.

Sammons represented himself differently in each part of his life, as needed. Much of it came from his background in martial arts, where he learned how to meditate and delegate. He gave himself room for fun, though, like fishing in his backyard pond, playing in his band and martial arts.

“He gave his love of sci-fi to my mom,” says Kornelis. During the holidays, they would watch Star Wars or Star Trek together. “With the new movies coming out it always makes me sad, because he would love this!”

Community service was a large part of his life. He was the Blossom Time Grand Parade chairman, the D.A.R.E. Association chairman, the 1981 Bellingham Chamber of Commerce president, the Blaine Chamber of Commerce president for many terms, and also a part of the Bellingham Junior Chamber of Commerce. The Westside Record-Journal named him Man of the Year in 1990.

Being the Chairman of the Ski to Sea Race was one of his favorite assignments. Kornelis remembers watching him on the floats when she was young.

Sammons with his granddaughter Aubrey Kornelis. “One of my first sentences was “let’s rock and roll, Papa!” says Kornelis. Photo courtesy: Aubrey Kornelis.

Sammons started his karate career in Seattle with the YMCA. By 1968, he attained his black belt in Goju-ryu karate. He earned his seventh degree blackbelt in 2002. He opened his own dojo, the Bellingham Academy of Self Defense, in 1972 after buying the old church on the corner of High and Maple. He also had black belts in Iaido, Kendo and Jujitsu, and learned Goju-kai with Gogen Yamaguchi, founder of the style.

“His hands were actually a lethal weapon – it’s a huge deal,” says Kornelis.

Sammons taught self-defense at Whatcom Community College from 1971 until 1989. He also taught the fundamentals of karate to the Bellingham Police Department. In 1984, he became the Northwest Regional Director of Goju-ryu Karate-do Kyo Kai.

In the 1980s, he would tour elementary schools and show karate to children. Kornelis has vivid memories of seeing him both at her school and the dojo, where she got to see the “sensei” side of him. Sammons also took Kornelis’ brother, Kamron Sammons, under his wing at 15, when the family moved back to Bellingham from Virginia.

Sammons with his grandson Kamron Sammons. Photo courtesy: Aubrey Kornelis.

“What I think was … he was kind of the son that he lost. He trained him. He built him a room in the dojo,” Kornelis says. “He took care of my brother when there wasn’t that male figure. And to me, he didn’t have to do that – but he was always taking care of us.”

The dojo later became the Bellingham Alternative Library.

Sammons also had a lifelong career in insurance. He owned Insurance Now, Blaine Insurance and the Duane Sammons Insurance Center. He worked for other insurance companies in the late 1960s and 1970s until 1978, when he opened Whatcom Insurance Center (later becoming the Duane Sammons Insurance Center). He bought Blaine Insurance the following year. Kornelis remembers visiting him at one of his companies.

“My mom and I would go visit, and he always had Tic Tacs in his pocket. He said they were for me.”

Sammons was also one of the founders of the Advantage Group, one of the largest privately-owned insurance agent collaborations in the Pacific Northwest. It became the accumulation of many different groups all the way to Skagit County.

A young Sammons before the Bathtub Gin Party Band. Photo courtesy: Aubrey Kornelis.

Sammons’ musical career spanned six decades. He started playing drums in junior high school and continued almost all his life. Music was huge for him. He loved jazz, blues and New Orleans music. Drums were his “one release,” and he was much more relaxed when he played, said Kornelis.

In 1959, he drummed professionally in Seattle with the Larry Durran Trio and later with the Gary Dahl Trio through the late 1960s. When he moved to Bellingham, he became a member of Ken Colvin’s bands and The Skippers. In 1983, he joined the Bathtub Gin Party Band and toured jazz festivals across the Northwest, California and even Japan. They once appeared as parade performers on an episode of Northern Exposure.

Even after developing dementia in his later life, his love of music never stopped. At a family Thanksgiving dinner, just before the plates were brought out, he started drumming with his fingers against the table.

“It was just him,” says Kornelis. “That was part of his soul.”

Sammon’s family had a memorial for him at the Bellingham Elks Club. Many karate school graduates, insurance coworkers, and community members were in attendance. Everyone talked about how much Sammons inspired them.

People say Kornelis is a lot like her grandfather, and shares much of his work ethic and persistence. One of the many things she learned from him was authenticity.

“You don’t need to compromise any of you to get what you want. In the end, you’ll get what you need anyways, but then you can always look back and hopefully be honorable about the way you lived your life. Honestly, he’s the only person I know who had no regrets. He taught so many people.”

By touching so many people in so many ways, Kornelis feels like her grandfather is still here. Though dementia took him, she knows it didn’t win.

“There are all these people that he influenced, that will remember him, that will be better people because they knew him,” she says. “I want to make sure everybody knows that [dementia] didn’t win.”

With a legacy like Duane Sammons’, it didn’t.

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