A seat on the Chehalis City Council was empty in honor of the late Chehalis Mayor Pro Tem Daryl Lund, who died on Saturday, Dec. 7, just two days before the council’s regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 9.
Along with the empty seat, a bouquet of flowers, a toy train and portrait of Lund were on display.
“I was very honored to be able to sit with Daryl, to be on the council with him for over 20 years. But more than that, I was privileged to be able to call Daryl my friend,” Chehalis Mayor Tony Ketchum said. “Daryl and I, we had many disagreements, but it was all done out of respect. I always knew Daryl had my back, and I had his back.”
He added Lund’s only goal in life was to help make the City of Chehalis better. Ketchum also touched on Lund’s caring heart, which he felt some Chehalis residents took advantage of, using Lund as a way to get issues they were advocating for discussed by the council.
Many of the disagreements between Ketchum and Lund stemmed from those issues, the mayor stated.
“He will be missed, and I will miss him more than anybody that I can ever think of in my mind. I thank you all for the outpouring of your support and really, right now, thinking if you’re spiritual and if there is a heaven, if there’s some utopia, I’m really not sure what Daryl’s going to do. Because he’s not going to be able to argue about anything because supposedly, everything will be perfect. So I’m sure for the rest of his life, Daryl will be one pissed off human being because he won’t be able to argue,” Ketchum said jokingly. “So, with that, I wish him well, and may he rest in peace.”
Chehalis City Councilor Kate McDougall also shared her condolences during the meeting.
“We’re all heartbroken up here. Daryl was so great in the last four years that I got to know him. He always had a story. I’m not from here so I got to learn a lot from him, and just how much he loved Chehalis showed in everything that he did. I’m gonna miss his laugh … But yeah, just a huge hole in the City of Chehalis right now we’re all feeling,” McDougall said. “We’ll keep doing this, and I’m sure he’s watching and happy to see us carrying on what he worked so hard for.”
Muriel Wheatley, manager of both the Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library and Centralia Timberland Library, also shared her sympathy prior to giving the council an update on the libraries.
“I’d just like to start off by giving you all my deepest condolences for the loss of Daryl. It’s a huge loss for our community and for everyone who loved him, and I’m thinking of you all right now,” Wheatley said.
Experience Chehalis Executive Director Annalee Tobey also gave solace to the council concerning Lund’s death prior to a presentation on the organization’s work with local businesses.
“Not an easy time for our community. He was involved in so many different areas in our community and had so many interests, and will be missed by so many people,” Tobey said. “And his jokes, and always teasing me and always getting me as he did with so many others, yeah, it’s just a real tough loss for our community. It was very fitting to see his fire engine in the parade on Saturday. That was a really wonderful tribute to his memory that will definitely live on in our community. There was nobody like Daryl.”
Other Chehalis residents who spoke during the council meeting’s public comment period also shared their condolences.
On Lund’s personal Facebook page, dozens of friends have left messages sharing their condolences along with their favorite memories of Lund.
A former volunteer firefighter and a 1979 W.F. West High School graduate who recently turned 63, Lund was a long-serving member on the Chehalis City Council along with being the owner of a Minuteman Press franchise in Chehalis, which opened in November 2023.
He was initially elected to the Chehalis City Council during the 1980s — at 23, the youngest councilor ever elected in the city — but lost his council seat to the now-retired Dr. Isaac Pope in 1987.
Though Lund lost the 1987 election, he moved to a different district in Chehalis and was eventually reelected to the Chehalis City Council again in 2004. He had served on the council ever since.
Lund was selected to serve as mayor pro tem by his colleagues on the council at the beginning of this year.
Lund was also a board member for the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce and an active member of the Lewis County Historical Society. He also worked with the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum and many other community groups and organizations.
He also served as a Port of Chehalis commissioner.
Along with having owned the Minuteman Press franchise in Chehalis, Lund at one time was also the owner of the Chehalis Theater — now known as McFiler’s Chehalis Theater — where he would frequently hold movie screenings for residents and worked as a ticket-taker during his teenage years growing up. He also owned the cinema at Yard Birds.
With his purchase of the at-the-time shuttered Chehalis Theater, Lund was responsible for helping renovate and save the structure, originally built in 1920. He spent years bringing the theater back to its former glory, even restoring and reinstalling the original Art Deco light chandeliers he found in the attic.
“Both of my parents helped me run it,” Lund told The Chronicle in 2016 when he sold the theater. “I have so many fond memories there.”
Lund passed away last weekend at the St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma after he had been initially hospitalized on Nov. 27 and diagnosed with septic shock.
Septic shock is a life threatening condition triggered when a person’s immune system has an extreme reaction to an infection, triggering dangerously low blood pressure, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
It is the most severe form of sepsis and can be caused by viral, bacterial or fungal infections, and in serious cases it can cause lung, kidney or heart failure leading to death.
With each councilor’s term being four years and Lund having just been re-elected in 2023, his term for the District 2 seat on the council was set to end on Dec. 31, 2027.
According to state law, the city has 90 days to choose Lund’s replacement on the council following the date of his death, at which point the county legislative authority is required to step in and appoint someone qualified to fill the vacancy.
Following the Chehalis City Council meeting on Monday, Chehalis City Manager Stacy Denham said as city staff and officials are still mourning, it was too soon to officially start the search for a new councilor to fill Lund’s vacant seat.
However, he added city staff do intend on beginning the search before the end of December.
When filling other vacancies on the council — such as the one left in late 2023 following the resignation of former Councilor Jerry Lord, who moved out of the district he represented — a public call for interested candidates within the district was put out with an application sheet for candidates to fill out and submit.
Following the application period, the council typically holds an interview and closed executive session meeting with candidates, before holding a vote among the council during an open public meeting as to which candidate to select.
The candidate selected will then serve out the remainder of Lund’s term on the District 2 seat through 2027.
To view the Chehalis City Council district map, visit the city’s website at https://www.ci.chehalis.wa.us/media/12721.
