Mal Armstrong - January 19, 1947 - January 14, 2019

Mal passed away unexpectedly at home in Stanwood from complications of diabetes at the age of 72. At his request there will be no services. The family will meet together this summer.

Mal was born in Pittsburgh Penn., to a military family. His father Ralph Armstrong from Pittsburgh and mother Jewel Mallory from Seattle, met when his father's ship was docked at the Navy Yard Bremerton and the sailors would ferry to Seattle.

His father was a deep sea diver for the Navy who transferred to the Coast Guard in Seattle, but they sent him to Ketchikan, Alaska where Mal and his sister Terry went to school for two years. Ralph was assigned to an icebreaker to the North and South poles, so they bought a home in Lynnwood and three more sisters were born.

Mal graduated from Meadowdale High School. He loved music and sang in the high school choir, also playing the violin and guitar. As a teenager he made many friends at Lake Ketchum (just north of Stanwood) where we bought a vacation lot, built a cabin and finally a home.

As an adult Mal lived on the Canal in Seattle, worked at Boeing and did some traveling in Europe and Mexico. He eventually settled in Stanwood where he helped build the HUD apartments at Warm Beach Senior Community where his mother now lives.

Mal was preceded in death by his father and two of his sisters, Terry (Tearah) Al Nassar and Christine Faries, both from heart attacks, two months apart. He is survived by his mother, Jewel Armstrong and sisters Robin (Rocky) Thomas of Marysville and Diane (Gary) Costa of Silver Lake.

Special thanks to his close friends, Cathy and Korey Johns.

Published in Stanwood Camano News on Feb. 19, 2019