PULLMAN, Wash. — Longtime Seattle veterinarian Stan Coe received the Weldon B. Gibson Distinguished Volunteer Award Oct. 5 at the Washington State University Foundation Dinner Gala in Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.
The annual award was established in 1981 to recognize an individual who has demonstrated sustained, exemplary service and achievement on behalf of the WSU Foundation and WSU.
“Stan has always been willing to go the extra mile in supporting anything required to promote WSU,” said another Seattle veterinarian, James C. Kraft, a previous award recipient. “He is an inspirational person, and his leadership in volunteerism is a great example for others. Busy as he is, he always finds time to help others.”
Coe was WSU Alumni Association president in 1984-85 and is a past president of the King County Cougar Club. He has served on the Washington State Board of Veterinary Governors and is a past president of both the Seattle and the Washington State veterinary medical associations. Owner of the Elliott Bay Animal Hospital in Seattle, Coe was named WSU Dad of the Year in 1984 and Veterinarian of the Year in Washington in 1989.
He holds two degrees from WSU, a bachelor’s in biological sciences (1955) and a D.V.M. (1957). His wife, Marge, is a 1957 home economics graduate. Their two children, Stan “Rusty” Coe and Cindy Zaring, also hold WSU degrees.
In 1987 Coe helped establish the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic in downtown Seattle, which provides free medical treatment for pets of the homeless and indigent. It is staffed by volunteers and open two Saturdays a month in the Union Gospel Mission.
The Gibson Award is named for the late Weldon B. Gibson, the WSU Foundation’s founding chair and a founder of the Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International.
