Obituary

Harold Horchover left this world on August 27, 2023. His peaceful passing took place at home, surrounded by immediate family who held his hand, his shoulder, his knee, his foot…depending on where we happened to be stationed at his bedside. He was 82.

Harold had the extraordinary ability to make the rest of us better versions of ourselves.

If you wanted to do something but weren’t sure you could, you believed you could do anything after talking to Harold.

If you confided a problem, Harold had an excellent suggestion for you to noodle. He celebrated the resolution you achieved as the culmination of your intelligence and special talents.

Harold always did more listening than talking. Anybody speaking to Harold had his full attention and left the conversation feeling interesting, important and valued.

If you’ve found us here, it’s likely you had one or more of these experiences with Harold and will know first-hand that his advice had to be requested and always started with a question, that he credited greatness to others, believed in goal-setting and positive thinking long before it was cool, was sensitive to any feeling any person might ever have, and quietly empowered people to realize potential they often didn’t even know they had.

In his retirement in California, Harold was a master gardener, an insanely talented wood worker and turner, an artful chef, baker and bread-maker, a committed fitness buff and zipped around in a 1972 candy-apple red Corvette with an engine capable of rattling plumbing, setting off car alarms and draining his bank account.

Harold survived a glioblastoma two years beyond the typical lifespan offered with this diagnosis, which we all attribute to his incredible physical health and extraordinary positive thinking.

He leaves behind Candy, his wife of 61 years, daughter Holly, son and daughter-in-law Dan and Lupita, and grandkids Delaney and Jake. We’re all devastated and hope this ebbs like everyone says.

Over the last couple years, Harold told us regularly what a good life he had.  If he knew you, you had a hand in this. Thank you for it, and for your friendship.

Harold’s formal obituary announcement will post in publications in the Seattle area, where he spent the first 55 years of his life and majority of his professional run.

To the amazing educators and former students of the Lake Washington and ABC School Districts and the Southeast ROP,  thank you for making those years so fantastic. He never forgot them, or you.