Michael Brinton Agather
Michael Brinton Agather was born in Libby on Jan. 15, 1940, to Alfons (Allo) and Isabel (Kienitz) Agather, He was the grandson of early Libby pioneers William and Blanche (Brinton) Kienitz and grandson also of Martha (Neils) and Alfons Agather of Kalispell. Julius (Mary) Neils, founder of J. Neils Lumber Co, was his great-grandfather.
He died peacefully in the early morning hours of April 20, 2017, at the age of 77, while in hospice care in Gilbert, Arizona. He was surrounded by his wife Kathy and daughter Lisa, sister Martha and cousins Judy and Fran Agather.
He attended Libby Public Schools until his sophomore year of high school when he transferred to Concordia Portland, graduating in 1958. After a year at the University of Montana, he spent two years at WSU in Pullman with a focus on foreign service. He spent a year studying in Austria and Germany, then received his BA at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He went on to obtain master’s degrees from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston and in German from the University of Washington.
Growing up, he spent his summers at the family cabin on Bull Lake and had summer jobs at J. Neils Lumber Co. and on the Great Northern Railroad crew.
A lifelong baseball fan, he taught his younger siblings how to play baseball in the backyard of the family home on Mineral Avenue. His siblings recall Michael’s voice from the basement wafting up through the heat registers as he played APBA, his baseball board game, alone, both calling the game and doing the color commentary. He became a regular attendee at Seattle Mariners games, but nothing replaced the 1965 Brooklyn Dodgers.
As the second of six children, Michael learned early on how to get attention with his comedic antics. He was an entertainer with a unique take on life and later, as a young man, delighted in making up songs on the ukulele or guitar about his siblings, his family, and life experiences, mostly to roars of appreciative laughter from his targets.
In 1964 he married his WSU sweetheart Kathy Krogue in Spokane; they eventually made their home on Mercer Island in the Seattle area and welcomed their daughter Lisa in 1968. Later they spent their winters at their home in Gilbert, Arizona, to be close to Lisa and her family.
While his education put him on a trajectory toward foreign diplomacy, he made teaching his life’s work. He left his banking job for a position at The Little School in Bellevue, a progressive nonprofit elementary school dedicated to encouraging a child’s natural curiosity as motivation for learning, with a mission to foster compassionate and community minded students.
He went on to teach elementary and middle school in the Bellevue School District for several years. His imagination, humor and sense of play made him a popular teacher who is remembered with great fondness by former students.
In his final Christmas letter he looked back at his life, calling himself the “gentle son of this beautiful environment, the Kootenai River and the Cabinet Range in Montana. ‘Gentle’ because I gave up the intensity of striving for the Foreign Service for teaching youngsters at a private school. Making a difference in a kid’s life was my calling, not diplomacy.”
Michael is remembered for his kindness, his intellect, his humor and interest in people. He was also an activist, marching against the Vietnam and Iraq wars. His friends, many with international backgrounds, will miss their long discussions and his perspective.
He is preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his loving wife of 52 years, Kathy Agather, of Mercer Island and Gilbert, Arizona; daughter Lisa Rike (Randall) and grandsons Christopher and Nicholas of Gilbert, Arizona.
He is also survived by his five siblings: Jay (Marjean) Agather of Hayden, Idaho; Andrea (Ray) Haugen of Tucson, Arizona and Kalispell; Martha (Jeff) Jordan of Sammamish, Washington; Mark Agather and Max (Linda) Agather of Kalispell; In addition, he leaves many cousins, nephews and nieces and friends who will miss him greatly.
If desired, contributions in his memory may be made to The Little School, 2812 116th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 or online at thelittleschool.org/give, or to a hospice program of your choice.
A celebration of his life will be held in August in the Seattle area.