PORT ANGELES — Mike McAleer, described by his daughter Colleen McAleer as “a pillar of our community,” died Wednesday. He was 86.
“He was an irreverent smart aleck when he wanted to be,” Colleen said as she described him. “But in a loving way.”
As soon as Mike moved to Sequim in 1991 and started Team McAleer — after more than 31 years in the U.S. Army — he became active in the community.
“Right away, he joined the Rotary Club,” said Colleen McAleer, the executive director of the Clallam County Economic Development Council and also a Port of Port Angeles commissioner.
While he was in the Sequim Sunrise Rotary, Mike established the flag program, which displays the American flag around the community five times a year, Colleen said.
Mike also helped support friends who were running for local elections and was appointed by the Clallam County commissioners to the Board of Equalization and the Opportunity Fund Board.
He served on the Sequim Chamber Board, the Clallam Economic Development Council, the Sequim Association of Realtors and the YMCA Board of Advisors.
“Giving back to your community was something he taught all of us,” Colleen said. “It was an important value to him.”
He was always worried about other people, she said.
When Mike eventually retired in 2014, he continued to volunteer an average of 20 hours per week with the Sequim St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), Colleen said. Through that program, he met people in their homes to counsel them on finances, distribute funds, meet people at gas stations to give them gas and more.
“He donated very generously to a myriad of charities,” Colleen said, including SVP, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and Queen of Angels.
Despite all the different hats he wore, Colleen said loving his partner and his children was the most important thing in his life.
Together, Mike and his first wife, Lynn McAleer, had five kids.
“He couldn’t have had a greater impact on my life and who I’ve become,” Colleen said. “I think you’d get that same statement from all five of the kids.”
Lynn died in 2023. For the eight years prior her death, she suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s. Mike devotedly supported Lynn the whole time, Colleen said.
“He doted on her,” Colleen said. “He would bring my mom along to all of these appointments.”
When he went to Rotary meetings, restaurants or appointments for SVP, “she was always by his side,” Colleen said.
Mike died after fighting a long battle with various forms of cancer, which he first was diagnosed with in 2006.
“He was a fighter,” Colleen said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better father, husband or grandfather.”
When he died, his wife of one year, Shannon Burke, and his five children were all by his side.
“His passing leaves a big hole in our lives,” Colleen said.
Mike’s funeral will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Sequim.
Anyone who knew and loved him is welcome to join both the service and the reception that will be held afterward, Colleen said.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
