"When I'm Not Thanked At All, I'm Thanked Enough.
I've Done My duty, And I've Done No More."

-- Henry Fielding


(Greg Palmer, 1948 - 2009)

I feel just terrible that I'm only now hearing of Greg's passing.

I first met Greg in 1990, when I performed in one of his plays, a silly little thing called "Betsy Green, The Mushroom Queen" at a mosquito-infested outdoor theatre literally within sight of Snoqualmie Falls (immortalized that same year as one of the iconic images from David Lynch's TV drama "Twin Peaks"), and later had the enormous privilege of directing one of his plays "The Big Bad Wolf (And How He Got That Way)" at the same location in 1997. As the playwright, Greg attended as many of the rehearsals as his busy schedule would permit, and was a gentleman through the entire process: generous with his time, judicious with his comments, encouraging with his criticism.

We stayed in touch over the years, and I always enjoyed our meetings, whether it was chatting with him and his son Ned (pictured with Greg, above) at opening nights at the 5th Avenue, or long telephone conversations brainstorming about a project he'd had in mind to archive all of the recorded footage of theatrical productions accumulated over the decades by the local TV stations.

Greg was truly one the "good guys", a singular, unique, intelligent, witty, outspoken, opinionated personality, a "lovable curmudgeon" of the sort that our modern era seems to be all-too-quickly losing (Not to mention his eerie "separated at birth" resemblence to Wallace Shawn.)

Here's a little sample of what we'll miss.

My deepest condolences to his family.