Councilmember Fred Obee

Fred has lived in Port Townsend since 2003, but he and his family have loved this place for far longer. He first started coming here in the mid-1970s when Port Townsend was a stopping place on the way to the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula. And after taking a newspaper job on Whidbey Island in the early 1980s, Port Townsend was an easy and affordable day trip for his family. Since those early visits, he has watched the town grow and prosper and he has always been impressed by the tenacity, wisdom, and creative spirit of the people who live here.

Fred worked for 40 years as a journalist in the Pacific Northwest. Almost half of that time was spent at the Port Townsend Leader, first as a reporter in the 1990s, and, after a few years away, he returned to become the General Manager. After leaving The Leader in 2015, he became the Executive Director of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, and he was also a board member with the Washington Coalition for Open Government. He retired in 2024. He and his wife Mary, a retired teacher, enjoy frequent visits with their four grandchildren and their son and daughter in law.

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