Dr. Jack Papritz, World Citizen
Jack Papritz was born March 28, 1929 in Everett, Washington. The child of Carl Papritz and Mabel (Whitney) Papritz.
Jack grew up in Mukilteo, Washington, he graduated from the University of Washington and then University of Chicago Medical School, and completed his internship in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In 1958 he went to Europe and toured the area on a moped. One evening at the Café Bauer in Hamburg, Germany, he asked a young woman from Sweden to dance with him. Two years later she became his wife. Jack and Maria Eckstrandh were married in a church from the 1500s in Maria’s home parish.
Jack spent two years as a flight surgeon at Wheelus Air Force Base in Libya, and later as a general practitioner in Anacortes as well as an emergency doctor in the region and later as a holistic health doctor.
Dr. Papritz said having a Swedish wife and traveling through Europe and North Africa had broadened his outlook. Anacortes was a quiet fishing village in 1961 when the couple suggested starting a European-style street art fair here, that street fair eventually became the annual Anacortes Arts Festival.
As a member of the Baha’i faith, Dr. Papritz served as chairman, treasurer, and national representative of the Anacortes Baha’i church. Jack was a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Anacortes International Folk Dancers. He was a founding member of such organizations as the Anacortes Sister Cities Association, Evergreen Islands and the Anacortes branch of the United Nations Association – all organizations that reflected his pursuit of peace.
Believing that peace efforts include environmental preservation, he and others formed Friends of Ship Harbor, eventually replaced by Evergreen Islands. They delayed a major development at Ship Harbor and stopped another at Heart Lake. He also led efforts to restore Ace of Hearts Creek.
Jack passed away on October 23, 2007 in Anacortes, Washington.
