#WAX POETIC TACOMA WA SERIES#

He served as a Naval Aviation Officer, which led to working in the aerospace field for General Dynamic Astronautics and General Atomic supervising advertising. My father learned to pilot seaplanes at a young age and loved to wax poetic about flight - both avian and aircraft. They remained ‘unfinished,’ and, furthermore, stuck on the hard drive of an Apple computer.

#WAX POETIC TACOMA WA SERIES#

Toward the end of his life, it seemed as though he may have sought to upend the stigma of this legacy through laboring over a series of publications that explored environment, ecology and marine life. He served as the account executive for Sea World for many years, starting with its opening. His advertising campaigns left their mark on San Diego over the years, and his articles and illustrations appeared now and again in many publications. He later formed Relf Communications and Torrey Services. Known for his keen intellect, powerhouse creative mind, and sardonic wit, his communications career included several partnerships, including Barnes & Chase, and the PR firm Scripps & Relf. He entered the field of advertising and public relations after graduating from the University of Washington. He attended Stanford as a pre-Med, and later studied at The Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City, now SVA, with Burne Hogarth and others. My dad was a man of many talents that served him well in a varied career. He was fond of sharing stories of his precocious childhood endeavors and life growing up with his sister Carol on Puget Sound. He was born in Tacoma, Washington, the son of Henry Clark Relf, an international lumber broker and De Lonto May Kirk, who met at the University of Washington.

The couple met at the University of Washington and moved to San Diego in 1956, then to La Jolla in 1959, where they raised four children: Terrie, Robin, Kirk, and Katherine. My father, Geoff Relf, a longtime San Diego advertising and communications figure passed away July 28, 2015, at 85, after battling cancer, surviving his wife, Connie by five years.

Wax poetic tacoma wa