Born in 1934, Lopezian Trevor Bryant was delivered in Seattle by his grandfather, a homeopathic physician.

“While my father was in medical school, he would have me recite names of bones for his friends, but I wanted to be a dentist. I like to work with my hands and creating some little one-of-a-kind thing for another human being is a special joy,” said Bryant as he mimicked sculpting a piece for a tooth.

Bryant attended Seattle schools except for three years beginning in 1946 when his family lived on Orcas Island.

Never having been in a room with more than one grade, he spent three days in the wrong class in a multi-grade room.

He graduated from West Seattle High School in 1952 and the University of Washington School of Dentistry in 1958.

Bryant married Joanne Anderson, the same year. The couple met at the Parker Ballroom, a roadhouse on old Highway 99. Introduced by his date, a mutual friend, Bryant left with Joanne’s telephone number.

He describes his wife as “this comet,” who accompanied him through his Air Force years. He wrote his commanding officer requesting to be stationed at Hamilton Air Force Base near San Francisco.

“A scrungy, folded-up envelope came back from Fallon, Nevada. Instead, I was assigned to a mobile dental van serving radar sites on the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line that were in place during the Cold War.”

“There were two dental chairs and a full lab in a semi-trailer. We followed it with our 19-foot trailer home.”

“Locations for the radar sites were on the highest hill in each region’s least populated area. We were in Red Bluff and Point Arena, California; then over Donner Pass to Winnemucca, Tonopah, and Fallon, Nevada; and Burns and Baker, Oregon.”

“It was a marvelous time. I was the second highest ranking officer with about a hundred personnel at each location. Duty was casual like television’s “MASH,” no fancy uniform, and I cut my own orders,” Bryant said.

After their first of three children, the family stayed in Winnemucca while Bryant continued to travel to other bases.

“During time off, friends and I would check out a weapons carrier and explore mining ghost towns, some with plates still on the tables.

“In Tonopah, the trailer court was the original depot for the ‘Tonopah Gold Field Bullfrog Railway.’ At $32.00 an ounce, the gold mines were abandoned. Residents were circulating petitions to raise the price, hoping that mining would reopen.”

Bryant set up his dental practice in 1961 with money saved from service duty. The Kent valley had only six dentists in the telephone book and seemed like a place with potential.

Kent was a small community and truck farms filled the area. Soon, the famous billboard urging the ‘Last person to leave Seattle, turn out the lights,’ was posted during a Boeing downturn. “It was not a great time to start a practice but it was a great place to be,” he said.

After flooding was controlled, the valley floor became commercially available. Boeing plants, South Center, and multiple warehouses were built along the railway.

Bryant constructed his professional building in 1966 with space for six dentists. Since that time, only two tenants have changed in the structure that he still owns.

“I always loved boats,” Bryant said, and he purchased his first in 1973. The Spirit Wind was the craft that he sailed to Glacier Bay to fulfill a lifelong dream.

With few guide books available, he chartered the trip in 50-mile segments, signing on passengers for each leg. “The tight schedule didn’t leave much time for bad weather.”

Joanne joined him and their son for a sunny arrival at their destination where the couple toasted their 25 wedding anniversary.

“While I was away, my practice was covered by a friend from the dental school where I was teaching part-time. My staff had learned expanded duties and I taught a class about training for that purpose.”

While sailing, Lopez Island became the object of the Bryant’s search for a retirement home. They purchased their property in 1990 and erected a yurt before building their house.

The couple moved in 1996 and he immediately became involved with the sailing program for the Lopez Island Family Resource Center and in finishing the Fellowship Hall at Grace Church where he remains an active board member.

He has served on the Catherine Washburn Board, is a new member of the Hospice and Home Support Board and is currently a mentor for a middle-school boy through the LIFRC. A long-time advocate of dental care for low-income patients, he gives enthusiastic support for having dental services available locally.

Laughingly, Bryant and his wife conclude, “There is proof of God’s grace that we are both alive—and still together—after 52 years of marriage.”