We’ve lot Bud McBride, lost his incredible art and his warm friendliness, his interest in the environment and history of this place. I will treasure every piece of my collection of his pottery, reminiscent of tribal art and nature.

We got acquainted with the McBride brothers in the Klee Wyk Studio at their farm property on Red Salmon Creek. The studio was destroyed for being in the path of I-5. Bud spent the winters on the farm making pottery for Crow Valley Pottery, his spring and summer studio on Orcas Island.

He was one of the first “bell-ringers” about the threats to the Nisqually Delta when a property owner wanted to lease tideland to Seattle, which needed a new solid waste disposal site. Bud worked to get help to protect the integrity of the last major estuary in Puget Sound.

The Nisqually Delta Association was an outcome of that battle, and Bud was in the middle of the work to protect the delta over several decades.

Bud worked on land use issues on Orcas Island, helping to preserve its history and the first school there.

We’ll celebrate this man’s life this spring at the family farm near the site of Klee Wyk Studio. It’s just above the Nisqually Tribe’s restoration of the Braget Farm, where things look more like those really early days on the delta.