The following is information that was supplied by Ernestine for the 50th reunion held in 1985:

"Since 1935, for me, there was a time of college, then teaching High School in Kansas, and doing Air Traffic Control (with the first class of women, by the way) in Boston, where I met and married my electrical engineer husband. We came to the Northwest, his original home area, and have been here in Oregon and Washington, with just a short time in California, since then. We lived in Oregon for 15 years while our family was growing up. I did the usual sort of volunteering - spending most of my time with Girl Scouting. In 1970, we moved to Seattle where my husband started a TV Consulting and Systems Engineering business, and I started a Sailing School, primarily for teenagers, on board a traditional 101 ft., two masted Schooner - quite a switch for a Kansas! We have a son who teaches at a University in Oregon, as does his wife. Our daughter married in Quebec, has a 7-year-old son; and helps operate their traditional Maple Sugar Farm and Resort."

Ernestine J. Bennett, 83, a native of Osawatomie, died Sunday Aug. 5, 2001, at her home in Mercer Island, Wash. after a brief illness with cancer. She and her late husband, Stanton D. Bennett, had lived on the island since 1970.

She was born March 18, 1918, in Osawatomie, a daughter of Mrs. & Mrs. E. J. Nichols. She was a 1935 graduate of Osawatomie High School and a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Mrs. Bennett was one of the first female air-traffic controllers during World War II. Intrigued with her voice on the radio, a radar engineer flying into the field sought her out in the control tower and quickly became her husband. During the next eight years, they lived in Seattle, and she raised her two children and supported her husband, Stanton, who was chief engineer of KOMO.

When the family moved to McMinnville, Ore., she took on a series of volunteer community service positions, including the creation of a youth center and coordination of Girl Scout activities. She began to organize Girl Scout outings on the Adventuress, a well-known Puget Sound schooner.

She eventually formed a nonprofit organization, Youth Adventure, which purchased the Adventuress and sponsored sail-training programs for young people, including at-risk youths. She continued to be an active director of the program until the age of 80, as well as serving on the board of the American Sail Training Association and the Historical Maritime Society.

Survivors include her son, Milton Bennett; a daughter Sandra; a sister, Jo Jean Nichols Wiggs of Lynden, Wash.; and one grandson.

A memorial service will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the University Christian Church, 4731 15th NE St. in Seattle.

Remembrances can be made to the Ernestine J. and Stanton D. Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund of the Intercultural Communication Institute, a nonprofit educational foundation that was endowed by the couple, 8835 SW Canyon Lane, Suite 238, Portland, Ore. 97225.