Roberta Louise Coon, 70

Community activist Roberta Coon of Sandpoint, Idaho, died early Wednesday morning, Nov. 30, 2005, after suffering a massive stroke. She was 70 years old.

A memorial service will be held at the Gardenia Center in Sandpoint at 1 p.m. Dec. 30, 2005.

Roberta was born and raised in Winchester, Mass. As a young woman she traveled west to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. There, she met and married Henry Struck of Richland, Wash.

She graduated from Whitman in 1959. Roberta and her family lived in Wenatchee from 1963 to 1971. She was active in the community, serving as executive director of the Sheltered Workshop, which she founded. She also established the first Head Start program in the Wenatchee area.

From 1971 to 1977, Roberta lived in Oroville, Wash., where she continued to support her community as a volunteer, including organizing the town's annual May Day celebration, and a town beautification project.

After leaving Oroville, Roberta lived in Seattle for several years while attending graduate school. In Seattle she was a well-known peace advocate as a managing director of the Ploughshares for Peace organization.

She was instrumental in organizing an exchange with Tashkent, Seattle's sister city in the Soviet Union, that culminated in a group of volunteers traveling to the USSR in 1986 to construct a peace park. As part of this effort, Roberta coordinated a drive to have the citizens of Seattle paint tiles as individual contributions to the peace park. Roberta took with her to Tashkent thousands of tiles, each with a separate story, and helped set them in the permanent fountains of that city.

In the early 1990s, Roberta lived in Spokane where she found many friends in the Unitarian Church. In 1997, she and Henry moved to Sandpoint. Roberta quickly became active in the community, serving on several boards and volunteering in the local Democratic Party.

Roberta was dedicated, enthusiastic and energetic in support of the people and ideas in which she believed. She had a lifelong commitment to peace, equality, opportunity and community. Roberta was drawn to the intellectual world of ideas, and was fascinated by a wide range of concepts and experiences. She was an avid reader of books and literature that challenged, comforted and entertained. This love of books and ideas fed a curious and open mind. She also was an athlete who enjoyed tennis, swimming, yoga, skiing and hiking, as well as gardening, knitting and cooking. She had great love for life and all its beauties as well as mysteries.

Roberta is survived by a large extended family, including Henry Struck of Sandpoint, and their four children, Myra McKitrick of Leesburg, Va., Philip Struck of Poulsbo, Wash., Pamela Struck of Wenatchee, Wash., and Paul Struck of Spokane, Wash.; and six grandchildren.