Caroline L. Feiss Obituary
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Caroline L. Feiss (Seattle, Washington), who passed away on March 23, 2017, leaving to mourn family and friends. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family.
She is survived by: her parents, Carl Feiss and Alleen Kelly Feiss; and also Caroline.
Caroline and her small staff at SNO-TRAN were a brilliant think-tank that became a leader in promoting 'transit-oriented development," the "urban centers" concept and other transit-supportive programs that are now commonplace. She was the primary author of SNO-TRAN's publication A Guide to Land Use and Public Transportation, which was reprinted by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation as a national and international model for transit-supportive land use planning. In 1990 she received the Washington State Department of Transportation Achievement Award for Outstanding Service. In 1995 she carried the transit-oriented development program to the Puget Sound Regional Council where she helped create a wide range of products to promote urban center development in the central Puget Sound region including the popular and hilarious role-playing "Centers Game" for elected officials and planning commissioners. In 1997 she returned to consulting with clients including the City of Bellevue, King County Metro and the Regional Transit Authority. Caroline's devotion to women's rights and the role of women in transportation, a field then dominated by men, led her to help create several organizations including Women in Research and the Puget Sound Chapter of Women's Transportation Seminar. She served as a member of the local WTS board for six year including two terms as President. She received five major awards from WTS including the National Board of Director's 1994 Award for Devoted Service. In 2002 she and Gordy retired and devoted themselves to one of their great loves, travel. Caroline was proud that she had visited 37 countries, 17 since she and Gordy retired. Caroline had many interests including painting, reading (in 1979 she helped found the still-meeting Book Club), bird watching, politics and the environment, and conversation with friends and even total strangers, some of whom became fast friends. She was always writing. She wrote poetry, "Dear Everybody" letters documenting trips, and Remaking American Places: The Vision of Carl Feiss, Architect, Planner, Preservationist, a biography of her father, published in 2011. Caroline is survived by Gordy Davidson, her love, and by her sister, Alison Feiss Kriviskey, two nieces and two nephews, and many dear friends. Caroline strongly believed that eventually, a cure for cancer will be found, and to assist in that effort and to aid medical students who will achieve that goal, donated her body to the University of Washington's Willed Body Program. A memorial celebration of Caroline's life will be scheduled for later this year. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation or her favorite charity, the Nisqually Land Trust, which protects lands along the river from its source on Mt. Rainier to its outlet Puget Sound near the Dupont shoreline she helped protect.
