SEDRO-WOOLLEY — If a wrestler couldn’t afford a letter jacket, if the buildings at Clear Lake beach needed painting or if the city needed a senior center or park, Donald “Spud” Walley found a way to make it happen.

Walley, who served as Sedro-Woolley mayor for 20 years and wrestling coach at Sedro-Woolley High School for 17, died early Wednesday after being hospitalized for several days after a stroke. He was 83.

“The best way to sum him up is: He always got it done,” said his son Shane Walley, who is the city’s parks and recreation supervisor. “If someone had a good idea, he found a way to get it done.”

Walley was nicknamed “Spud” because of his love of eating potatoes as a child.

Survivors include his second wife, Erlene Walley, and his four children Shane, Randy, Don and Cyndy. His first wife, Betty Lou Walley, died in 1998.

By all accounts, Spud Walley was a likable, outgoing man. He taught math and physical education in Sedro-Woolley schools. He served his adopted city first as a councilman for 16 years and then as mayor from 1976 to 1991 and 1996 to 1999.

“I think he truly loved Sedro-Woolley,” said Skagit County Commissioner Sharon Dillon, who succeeded him as mayor in 2000. “He was always putting the town’s needs and wants before his own.”

Walley encouraged other residents’ generosity on community projects, such as building the Senior Center, Community Center, Rotary Club’s River Front Park, Hammer Heritage Park and facilities at Clear Lake.

“He’d sit down and just have a chat with you, and by the time you were done, you would have given of your time or money,” Dillon said.

Current Mayor Mike Anderson said people like Walley are a vanishing breed. Anderson ordered the city flags be flown at half staff until Friday.

“Spud has been a fixture in Sedro-Woolley for decades,” Anderson said. “He will be sorely missed.”

Walley was born in Seattle and moved to Hamilton as a tot, his son said. A Sedro-Woolley High graduate of 1944, he served in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from Western Washington State College. He began teaching in 1953 at Central Elementary, then moved to Cascade Middle School and Sedro-Woolley High.

Walley’s passion for the Sedro-Woolley High School Cubs led him to paint his first car, a used Chevrolet sedan, blue with white trim, said his friend and retired Cascade Middle School Principal Bill Stendal.

“He was so proud of that car,” said Stendal, who attended high school and college with Walley and also served as mayor.

While Walley was helping teach children to swim at Clear Lake one summer, his friends covered the vehicle with water-soluble paint as a practical joke, Stendal said.

“Where he had it blue, they painted it white, and he just about died because he just had it painted,” Stendal said. “He did everything but cry. Finally, someone put a bucket of cold water on it.”

Although Walley coached at the junior high level, he is famous in state athletic circles for establishing a strong high school wrestling program. His record was 347-9 in dual meets and includes 12 regional championships, three state titles (1976, 1981 and 1983) and seven individual state champions.

Burlington Mayor Ed Brunz, who was Walley’s competitor as Burlington-Edison High wrestling coach from 1968 to 1987, said that when their teams faced off, they filled the gym to the rafters. Walley’s coaching style encouraged his wrestlers to dig deeper and give more physically and mentally to a match than they realized they had, Brunz said.

“He worked you to death and it paid off, and the kids saw that it paid off after the tournaments came around,” Brunz said.

In 1985, Walley was inducted into the Washington State Wrestling Hall of Fame. Three years ago, the name of the Skagit Valley Invitational wrestling meet was changed to the Spud Walley Invitational.

Jay Breckenridge, who for the past 11 years has coached wrestling at Sedro-Woolley High, said he owes his job to Walley, and he’s now coaching the children of some of Walley’s wrestlers.

Breckenridge met Walley when Breckenridge wrestled for Burlington-Edison High in the late 1970s.

“When you had Spud Walley come up and congratulate you and say you were now representing our valley and not just your school — that was the first we heard that,” Breckenridge said. “It was like you were wrestling not just for Ed Brunz but also for Spud Walley.”

Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .