ANACORTES — When John Tursi first arrived at Fidalgo and Whidbey islands in 1934, the bridges over Deception and Canoe passes were still under construction.

Then only 16 years old, Tursi had lied about his age to get into the Civilian Conservation Corps. Willing to do dangerous, dirty jobs, the youth was trained to work on a powder crew.

Tursi drilled holes and loaded them with explosives to blast away rock. At one site, he hid behind a huge Douglas fir for protection.

His bosses gave him access to a powder magazine with hundreds of pounds of dynamite. They gave him something even more valuable, trust.

“The trust, that gave me confidence,” he said.

Trust, hard work and the beauty of the islands helped transform Tursi. He planted trees near the present day location of the Deception Pass State Park office. He blasted out the parking lot south of the Deception Pass bridge and built the foundations of an arched overpass underneath Highway 20.

“John is our link with this park’s creation,” said Jack Hartt, manager of Deception Pass State Park. “John’s our legacy to the past and our connection to the future.”

Little did Tursi or anyone else he worked with in the CCC from 1934 to 1936 realize at the time that Deception Pass would become one of the most visited sites in the country.

Besides drilling and blasting, he cleaned out clogged toilets, did carpentry work, and drove the trucks that hauled the logs that became the guardrails along Highway 20. He helped build an overpass that now supports 32,000 cars each day as they travel along the highway on Whidbey Island.

“They got a cheap bridge,” Tursi said. “Never did we realize there would be a major highway going over that thing.”

Most evenings after work, Tursi would hike back to the job site to watch eagles fish in the waters of Deception Pass, according to “Long Journey to the Rose Garden,” his 1985 self-published biography, that he cowrote with Thelma Palmer, a friend and retired English teacher.

As an introverted teenager from Brooklyn, Tursi had escaped an abusive family and crushing poverty by audacity and his willingness to work. Tursi said that it didn’t matter how hard, dirty or dangerous a job was, he would do it.

Over the next several years, Tursi grew into a young man who married an Anacortes girl, Doris Anderson; encountered prejudice because of his Italian ancestry; and survived a dangerous mission behind enemy lines at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

After he returned home from war, Tursi worked in a cannery and then at a refinery, becoming a supervisor, and built both homes that he and his wife lived in. His wife ran a beauty shop.

He also volunteered in the community with various groups, including Boy Scouts, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Red Cross and Soroptimist.

Tursi was recognized in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan for his volunteer work. He still volunteers a few days a week at the Soroptimist Thrift Shop, which his wife got him involved in in the 1960s.

He and Doris, who died in 2005, focused on helping groups that served animals, families and the forest, which they loved.

“I think he cares about the community that he lives in and he wants to help make it be a better place,” said Gary Robinson, director of the city parks and recreation department.

The parks department manages the Anacortes Community Forest Lands, which are one of the beneficiaries of the couple’s largess.

It was Tursi’s ongoing stockmarket investments that gave him and Doris the means to become among the community’s foremost philanthropists. The couple has donated to the Skagit Land Trust, The Humane Society of Skagit County, the Anacortes Community Forest Lands, Anacortes Community Shelter Project, among other groups. Since Doris’ death, Tursi often donates in her name.

“I just got to where I wanted to help people who were suffering,” he said.

Now almost 92, Tursi remembers his first sights of Fidalgo and Whidbey islands and how they compared to where he grew up. In Washington, he was fed and he could look at the towering evergreens and watch bald eagles soar. In New York, he was hungry and on the streets.

“I’m not going back home again,” said Tursi remembering.

Two years later, in 1936 he had married Doris. They lived in Anacortes and in 1941, he was building a home for them when the United States entered World War II.

The day after war was declared, Anacortes police confiscated Tursi’s deer rifles because he was of Italian descent. Doris, who was trying to start up her own beauty parlor began losing customers because her husband’s heritage.

He said that he volunteered for the Army Engineers and was sent to England as part of the 342nd 49th Combat Battalion 1143rd Engineers. His unit was sent to France, landing on Omaha Beach, June 16, 1944, 10 days after the historic June 6 invasion.

Tursi and his unit were strafed daily by enemy aircraft as they rebuilt bridges, power transmission towers and cleared or installed rail lines. He had several near misses, including unearthing a 20-pound mine with his bulldozer.

That winter, in Belgium, his unit was sent off without their mackinaws or galoshes to what would become know as the Battle of the Bulge. The battle was fought from Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 25, 1945, when the Germans launched a major offensive against the Allies. He suffered frostbitten feet and he said he used his ability to speak French to help his commanding officer obtain information about the German positions from French freedom fighters.

“I know he fought in a war that was extremely difficult and I’m sure that shaped him in ways that I can’t imagine,” Robinson said. “I think he’s taken difficult circumstances and turned them into a good thing.”

When he returned from the war, he was 28 and Doris was 30. The couple spoke of having children. At the time, Tursi was working a series of jobs that appeared to have no future. Tursi said that given his background, he was reluctant to raise children if he couldn’t support them. He and Doris decided against having children.

When the refineries open in the 1950s, Tursi got a job with Shell Oil and later became a supervisor. Tursi said that he thinks his work ethic and willingness to do any job that was asked of him was why he got promoted at Shell.

“You have to have a good attitude in life. You get noticed,” Tursi said.

He and his wife continued to live frugally, and he invested in the stockmarket. He and Doris used to joke about how they put turkeys on other people’s Thanksgiving dinner table when they would cook oxtail soup.

His investments began to pay off.

“Someone asked me once: ‘Are you going to buy a Mercedes?’” he said. “I said: ‘No, I can’t afford it.’”

In truth a Mercedes wasn’t his or Doris’ style.

“We’re not flashy people,” Tursi said.

After the couple retired in 1977, they spent their time volunteering, folk and square dancing and traveling. Tursi and his wife visited 65 countries, but in France, there was a place that Tursi couldn’t visit — Omaha Beach.

“I didn’t quite get to the beach,” Tursi said. “I didn’t feel good. It disturbed me.”

In the 1990s, the couple became interested in efforts to preserve 1,500 acres of the city’s forests and the Skagit Land Trust’s efforts to protect habitat and open space.

They also adopted a dog from the Humane Society of Skagit County and became “faithful” supporters of the animal shelter, said Sandy Nelson, director.

When Doris died in 2005, Tursi moved from the home they had shared near Sharpes Corner into a senior living center. Most of the 18 acres that he and his wife owned was put into a conservation easement, preventing it from being developed.

Molly Doran, executive director of the land trust, says that Tursi’s her “stock broker” but she doesn’t have the courage to follow his tips. Doran has followed some of the stocks Tursi invests in and is amazed at the pay out.

Tursi took a portion of his money and invested it so he’d have a reliable income to live off of.

“I play with the rest of it,” he said.

In other words, he invests it and then shares the profits with various philanthropic causes that focus on animals, families and forest.

“To me, it’s a pleasure to give it away,” he said.

This summer, the John and Doris Tursi Park on Pennsylvania Avenue will be dedicated. City officials wanted to do something to recognize Tursi’s contributions to the Anacortes Community Forest Lands and the community, Robinson said.

“He’s just a really extraordinary person in his willingness to contribute and help with things,” Robinson said. “He’s just a real regular guy. He’s just an ordinary guy.”

On a recent drive through the city’s forest past Heart Lake toward Deception Pass, Tursi pointed out sites that he helped save by purchasing conservation easements. He smiles with satisfaction when he thinks of the 400 acres he helped protect.

He said sometimes he wishes that he could still sleep in the forest.

“This is pristine. There’s not that much that’s pristine any more,” he said. “Right now, there’s nothing more gratifying to see than these people enjoying the forest lands,” he said.
Tursi said he enjoys driving through the city’s forest lands and through Deception Pass State Park in his green Subaru wagon.

“I get a satisfaction. The forest does something for me. It’s soothing,” Tursi said. “When I feel blue in the room, I get in the car. Everyone’s here for the same reason, to enjoy it.”

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