A retired hotel executive honored by Washington State University for his contributions, Charles D. Comstock of Bellevue died December 27, 2011. He was 83.
Comstock was born Dec. 20, 1928, in Longview, Wash. and lived in Keasey, Oregon near Vernonia. Upon his father’s death in 1941 the family moved to Tacoma where Charles graduated from Lincoln High school in 1947. He attended Washington State College, majoring in hotel and restaurant administration, partly to indulge his lifetime love of food and cooking. He worked as a bellhop at Seattle’s Olympic Hotel to pay his tuition.
After graduating from WSC in 1952, he launched a 30-year career with Westin Hotels and Resorts, and later worked as an officer of Hotel Systems International in Los Angeles.
He married June Marie Johnson on Jan. 13, 1962, in Lakewood. The couple had two children.
In 2007, he was awarded a medallion by WSU’s School of Hospitality Business Management in recognition of his contributions to the industry and the school on the occasion of its 75th anniversary.
Survivors include his wife, June; a son, Charles Mark Comstock of Studio City, Calif., a daughter, Tracy Marie Jones Morris of Athens, Ala.; sister Jane Garl Avera of Vancouver, Wash.; and four grandchildren.
A celebration of life will be at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, at Newport Presbyterian Church, 4010 120th Ave. S.E., Bellevue. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the WSU School of Hospitality Business Management, .