Earl Tilly

Earl Tilly has lived in the Wenatchee Valley for 56 years. He grew up in Dryden, then moved to Wenatchee and worked in the family farm machinery business for 26 years.

In 1972 he was elected to the State House of Representatives and served 7 terms.
As a legislator he served on almost every committee, plus 6 years in Republican leadership as Organization Leader and Majority Caucus Chair.

He was appointed by President Reagan in 1986 and by President Bush in 1989 to be the State Director of Farmers Home Administration.

In 1994 he began serving as Wenatchee's Mayor and was reelected in 1997, serving until November 22, 1999.

Earl has been a member of the Wenatchee Rotary Club for 34 years, is a past-president of the club and has been in Wenatchee Rotary's "Lunch Buddy" program at Lewis and Clark Elementary School for 5 years.

During Earl's term as club president we dedicated the "Coyote Leading the Salmon" sculpture to the memory of Lev Craven in Walla Walla Point Park. The club's auction, that year, netted $34,000 that was donated to three special projects:

• Hospitality House
• D.A.R.E.
• The Guild House at Central Washington Hospital.
• Earl's unique speaker's gift was an embossed squeeze bottle. He has noted that they are now considered collector's items, bringing big bucks on e-bay.
• The Tillys have attended 3 R.I. conventions and many district conferences.
• Some of Earl's District 5060 leadership roles have included:
• Area representative for the six clubs in this region (1991-93)
• Co-chair of R.I.Foundation(1993-1995).
• Currently Earl chairs the Districts Membership Development Committee.

In Public service, a major part of both Earl and Barbara's lives, they were very active in bringing Habitat for Humanity to the Wenatchee area 9 years ago, resulting so far in 18 families now living in safe and decent homes.

Also, Earl was very involved in raising the money for the new Wenatchee Valley Senior Center and in getting it built within budget.

He and Barbara have 3 grown children and 5 grandchildren. Two grandchildren are Paul Harris Fellows and two are Paul Scea Fellows.

Earl views his theme as mayor, "Action for Today, Vision for Tomorrow" led to many good accomplishments in Wenatchee during his tour of duty.

Guided by his new theme, "Life is Good", Earl strives to be a better grandfather and spouse, maintaining physical fitness and providing some special volunteer work.

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