Seattle Post Itelligencer Obituary

Kevin Li, 1956-2006: He brought purple martin back to area

Friday, February 3, 2006

By GORDY HOLT
P-I REPORTER

There may not be a birder or a naturalist in all of the Puget Sound area who did not know -- or know of -- Kevin Li, a friend to creatures big and small, but especially to the United States' biggest swallow, the hand-sized, beleaguered purple martin.

"He was the man who brought them back to Seattle," said state Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, himself a birder and purple martin fan.

A biologist and water-quality specialist in the King County Department of Natural Resources, Li died Sunday while scuba diving near the Keystone ferry dock on the west side of Whidbey Island.

Li's longtime companion, Kris Baker, a Magnolia Library employee, was at work when she got the call.

She said the captain and crew from the ferry Klickitat went to Li's rescue after seeing him struggle against the current, try to haul himself and his equipment onto jetty rocks, then slump and tumble back into the water.

A heart attack is the suspected cause of death, but has not been confirmed.

Li turned 50 Jan. 5 while he and Baker were vacationing in Hawaii. Sunday's scuba trip was scientific. He was searching for what he might find among the invertebrates -- squishy, boneless sea creatures.

But it was the purple martin, not the sea cucumber, that consumed his zeal in recent years.

Jacobsen bears the responsibility, he said.

About 10 years ago, he wrote a piece for the local Audubon Society magazine that urged a campaign to bring back the bird, gone from much of the region since the 1940s.

"Kevin saw the article and called me," Jacobsen said. "Next thing I knew, he was the one who had became the parent to these purple birds. And he was so good at it that I just couldn't be envious."

Most of the work involved building, collecting and placing special birdhouses in places where purple martins are likely to flit, usually by water.

To see examples of Li's birdhouses, check out the pilings near Ray's Cafe off the entrance to the Lake Washington Ship Canal at Shilshole Bay.

"He never had to recruit people to help him," said Jonathan Frodge, a King County colleague of 16 years and a close friend.

"People wanted to go out with him."

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Li went to the University of Washington in the 1970s to study biology and earned a bachelor of science degree in fisheries in 1978. But he was already on a roll, friends said.

While in high school, he had worked in the invertebrate lab at the Smithsonian. He went on to participate in an Audubon Society puffin recovery project in Maine. He counted fish in the Bering Sea, worked on a lizard project in Honduras and attached himself to a shrimp program in El Salvador.

Word of his death spread at a frantic pace over Tweeters, the Seattle e-mail service for birders.

E-mailer Dennis Paulson helped spread the word with a message that included this note about Li's work on behalf of purple martins: "He had help from many others, but I think Kevin, by his enthusiasm and many hours of hard work, can be single-handedly credited (with) turning around the decline of (this) charismatic species."

Survivors include Baker, his partner of 10 years; a brother, Christopher Li of Bethesda, Md.; a sister, Suzanne Li of Flushing, N.Y.; uncles James Wong of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Frederick Wong of New York City; and an aunt, Jean Wong of Flushing, N.Y.

A memorial service is set for 6 p.m. today at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 N.E. 41st St., Seattle. Directions can be found at depts.washington.edu/urbhort/html/info/contact.html, or call 206-543-8616.

In lieu of flowers, donations may go to the Georgia Basin Ecological Assessment and Restoration Society. For details, e-mail blue_firetail@yahoo.com.

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P-I reporter Gordy Holt can be reached at 206-448-8356 or gordyholt@seattlepi.com.

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