Mason County

Thursday, April 18, 2019 - Week 16

Renaissance woman

Shelton resident Carolyn Maddux worked for the Shelton-Mason County Journal for more than 20 years, and was named the managing editor following the death of Henry Gay. She teaches creative writing at Olympic College Shelton, and is the acting director at Hypatia-In-The-Woods, where female writers work. Journal photo by Gordon Weeks

Carolyn Maddux has a way with words

By GORDON WEEKS
gordon@masoncounty.com

No standard-size business card can hold Carolyn Maddux’s titles and passions.

The longtime Shelton resident is a poet, journalist, editor, teacher, gardener, former antique storeowner and baker of bread. A common denominator is a passion for words and nature.

As a reporter and editor for the Shelton-Mason County Journal for two decades, Maddux said she enjoyed “the kind of rush when something was happening and when I got my teeth into a project. And I loved writing.”

Maddux grew up on the north shore of Hood Canal, between Belfair and Tahuya. Her father worked as a rigger at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard; her mother was a third-grade teacher who took time off from that job while Maddux was young.

Growing up there “was idyllic,” she recalled. “I lived between woods and water.”

Maddux attended Belfair Grade School and was a member of the last class bused to Port Orchard to attend South Kitsap High School.

“It was quite a change from being in a class of 24 to 28 kids,” she said.

At South Kitsap High, she worked on the yearbook staff, and was briefly a member of Future Homemakers of America. After graduating in 1961, Maddux enrolled at the University of Washington as a double major in zoology and English. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and then earned her teaching certificate.

Maddux taught English and journalism at Weatherwax High School in Aberdeen for two years, and then took a year off.

“I thought I’d write the ‘Great American Novel,’ ” she said. “That didn’t work out.” She then went to Pacific Lutheran University for a year.

Maddux joined the staff at Annie Wright School in Tacoma, where she taught English. Her first class had 13 students.

“That was glorious,” she said. “It was absolute bliss after public schools … an ideal teaching situation.”

For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition.

PUD 1 thief, 66, sentenced

By MICHAEL HEINBACH
michael@masoncounty.com

After Cynthia Jeanne Carow struggled to find words when asked if she wished to speak before Judge Amber Finlay handed down the 66-year-old Shelton woman’s sentence for first-degree theft, Finlay asked Carow a simple question Monday morning in Mason County Superior Court.

“Why did this happen?” Finlay asked Carow, who last month pleaded guilty to using her position as network administrator at Mason County PUD 1 to misappropriate more than $10,000 in company funds to her benefit between 2007 and 2016.

When words failed Carow yet again, defense attorney Robert Brungardt answered for her.

“My client lost her husband during that span of time, and she lost income that he was bringing into the household,” Brungardt said. “And just to meet basic expenses … that’s exactly what happened.”

Finlay handed down a recommended sentence, agreed to by the state and defense of 90 days — 60 days of jail alternatives, such as electronic home monitoring, and 30 days’ community service — and allowed Carow 20 days until she has to start serving her sentence. More importantly, Finlay ordered Carow to pay her former employer $18,448.68 in restitution — $10,117.17 the Potlatch-based public utility could prove she stole from the company and $8,331.51 in investigation costs.

Brungardt told the court that Carow recently worked out a plan to pay PUD 1 back the money within five years.

At the start of the sentencing hearing, Tyler Bickerton, deputy Mason County prosecutor, read a victim-impact statement signed by the PUD 1 board of commissioners — president Ron Gold, vice president Mike Sheetz and secretary Jack Janda.

For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition.

Former Shelton High School boys basketball coach Derrick Pringle watches the action during a game earlier this season at the Mini-Dome in Shelton. On April 12, Pringle resigned after five seasons as the Highclimbers’ coach. Journal file photo by Justin Johnson

Shelton hoops coach resigns

By JUSTIN JOHNSON
justin@masoncounty.com

The season before Derrick Pringle arrived on campus, the Shelton High School boys basketball team didn’t win a game.

On April 12, just a few weeks after coaching the Highclimber boys to their first winning season in 13 years, Pringle announced he’s stepping down after five seasons.

“I wasn’t pressured to leave,” Pringle said. “I came here for one to help a friend get some coaching experience. In the process, I got to learn about the community and the players. I’ve been here for five years and what I came here to do was accomplished, which was to help restore the program I really loved to watch for the last couple decades.”

For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition.