In memoriam: Geoffrey Braden was an accomplished woodworker

FFRF Lifetime Member Geoffrey Braden, 74, died on Jan. 11, 2022. 

While a teenager, Geoff worked as a guide on Mt. Rainier, making it to the summit many times. Upon graduation from high school, he joined the Navy and served in Vietnam, crewing landing craft. After discharge, Geoff returned to Seattle and crewed on Alaska tugs, and then went to work on those tugs and other vessels as a shipwright. 

He retired from the shipyards and went to work in the boat shop at the Center for Wooden Boats. He also remodeled the home he and Judith enjoyed for many years, and in his spare time earned a BFA in industrial design from the University of Washington. 

After fully retiring, he loved to work in his basement shop, building a canoe, furniture, and producing beautiful wood-turned vessels on his lathe. He considered his “finest hour” to be the two years he stayed home to finish the house remodeling and be a househusband and dad to his baby son. Geoff, with baby Duncan tucked in a backpack, were well-known at Dunn Lumber, Stoneway Hardware and the Wallingford QFC. 

Geoff loved anything to do with woodworking, boats, mountaineering, history, old movies, classical music and crossword puzzles. He was a lifelong Democrat, union member, freethinker and feminist. And every day for over 20 years, he and Judith sat down at 4 p.m. to play a cut-throat game of cribbage. 

He is survived by wife, Judith Rickard, son Duncan Braden, and a wide circle of family and friends.