Geoff Menzies
Geoff Menzies, an oyster farmer, environmental activist and community organizer recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency for his successful 20-year effort to clean up pollution in Drayton Harbor and help restore oyster harvesting in the bay south of Blaine, died on Sept. 5, 2026, in his West Seattle home surrounded by his three children. He was 72.
Geoff was born in 1953 in Baltimore, Maryland, second son of Allan and Marion “Marnie” Menzies. He grew up 10 miles north of the city on property his grandfather subdivided, allowing four of his five children to live nearby. So, Geoff’s neighborhood consisted mostly of aunts, uncles and cousins who spent large chunks of their childhood playing kick the can, catching salamanders in nearby streams and building hay forts in the barn.
It was on this property that Geoff’s deep appreciation for the natural world was instilled. In his final days, he reminisced about turning stones over in the creek to find small critters, and then care for them. That translated into his life’s work and passions that his family and friends will continue to honor in memory of him.
Geoff attended Gilman School in Baltimore, where he played varsity football and lacrosse before graduating in 1972. During this early period of life, Geoff fell hard for two of what would become lifelong passions: tennis and sailing. His dad often dragooned Geoff and his siblings into crewing his sailing dinghies, which eventually became 14-foot sailboats, and then 36-footers with spinnakers, even inboard engines, that plied the warm waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Geoff would not fall too far from that tree.
After high school, Geoff attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, for his freshman year, but then transferred to the University of Maryland, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture.
After an unsatisfying stint as a field supervisor with Perdue Farms — then, and now, one of the largest chicken-producing companies in the United States — Geoff, looking for ways to make agricultural practices more environmentally friendly, pursued a graduate degree in Integrated Pest Management at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
After graduating from SFU, Geoff and his then wife, Andie Lilley, moved to Yakima, Washington, where he worked with fruit and hop growers to promote the broader use of techniques to enhance yields with less adverse effects on the environment. In the mid 1980s, Geoff, Andie and their young family moved to Ferndale, Washington, where he worked as an agricultural consultant with berry growers in Whatcom County.
He first waded into shellfish harvesting in 1992 when he and Steve Seymour invested in an oyster farming business based in Drayton Harbor. They spent the next three years acquiring the lease needed for planting oyster seed, only to have all their efforts go for naught when the state Department of Health closed the shellfish beds down due to pollution in the harbor stemming from multiple sources.
Geoff returned to his agricultural consulting work, but did not give up on his dream of oystering. He continued doing volunteer work for the Drayton Harbor Shellfish Protection Advisory Committee, which was charged with coming up with a plan to restore water quality to enable oysters to once again flourish in Drayton Harbor.
“I soon found myself wearing my hip boots less and less and spending more and more time going to meetings — meetings about figuring out how to control non-point pollution in our watershed,” Geoff wrote.
With the help of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, Geoff was galvanized by their collective vision of rallying the community to truly engage in the hard work of short-circuiting the sources of pollution and restoring oyster farming in the bay.
In 2001, with special permission from the state and Geoff at the helm, the nonprofit Drayton Harbor Community Oyster Farm was authorized to plant baby oysters in an area of the harbor where harvesting was still prohibited. By June 2004, the state Department of Health reclassified hundreds of acres of oyster beds as harvestable under certain conditions.
“We honor Geoff Menzies for answering the call to serve a cause greater than himself,” EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said while honoring Geoff’s work to clean up Drayton Harbor at a regional ceremony in 2008. “Dedicated volunteers like Geoff are inspiring others to join them in delivering America a brighter, healthier future.”
In 2013, Seymour agreed to come back to the operation and assume the tidelands lease. Today, Seymour’s oyster farm and waterfront restaurant, the Drayton Harbor Oyster Co., is a cornerstone of Blaine.
Geoff’s enduring love of outdoor recreation and athletic endeavors flourished in the Northwest, where he successfully climbed Mount Baker, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens (got “whited out” on Mount Rainier), enjoyed doing one-day bike rides over the Cascades and back, and competed in Bellingham’s Ski to Sea event multiple times.
But his greatest joy, perhaps, was rousing his three children early on weekend mornings, banging on the walls and playing loud music to get them up and out of the house for hikes, bike rides, ski days and sailing adventures on the Pemaquid Light, the family’s 36-foot sloop, most often deployed to explore the San Juan and Gulf islands.
For the last seven years, Geoff lived in West Seattle near his second daughter, Sarah, and two of his grandkids. There he discovered the many splendors of Lincoln Park — its profusion of Madrona trees, views of the snow-capped Olympics, and its high likelihood of serving up a vista of orcas rising up from the Salish Sea. Nearly every day, Geoff would go for long walks in the park — making new friends, swimming in the frigid waters amid the kelp and communing with the crows brave enough to seek the occasional peanut from him.
In the days prior to his death, Geoff said, “I want our family to stick together to do what you can, in your way, to maintain an active and healthy environment. That’s all I have. I don’t have any tricks.” This is how we encourage others to honor his legacy and memory: by caring for the natural world.
Geoff is survived by his three children, Avery (Scott) Wruck, Sarah (Kaitlin Bailey) Menzies and Will (Mel Merrihew) Menzies; four grandchildren, Rowan and Noah Bailey, and Kaia and Tyler Wruck; two brothers, Pete and Dave Menzies, and a sister, Laurie Samuels.
In lieu of flowers, Geoff’s family asks that you consider donating to the Puget Sound Restoration Fund to honor his legacy of restoring and protecting marine habitats.
