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Dunn awards Martin Luther King Medal of Distinguished Service to Bill Kombol
Summary
King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn on Tuesday awarded Bill Kombol with the Martin Luther King Medal of Distinguished Service, an award that recognizes individuals whose work has answered the question asked by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “What are you doing for others?”
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King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn on Tuesday awarded Bill Kombol with the Martin Luther King Medal of Distinguished Service, an award that recognizes individuals whose work has answered the question asked by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “What are you doing for others?”
Kombol has worked hard to protect and preserve the history of his community and ensure its vitality for future generations.
“I am pleased to honor Bill for his decades of service to Southeast King County, particularly for his great contributions to historic preservation,” Dunn said. “Without him, many stories from the Enumclaw and Black Diamond communities would have been forgotten and lost forever. Today we thank Bill for the countless hours and passion he has poured into his volunteerism.”
Kombol has deep roots in Southeast King County. Long before his birth, his family worked the coal mines of East Pierce County, eventually starting their own firm and moving to King County. Bill joined the family business in 1968 at age 15, working as a “Saturday boy” for Palmer Coking Coal Co. During his senior year of college he worked nights at Washington’s last underground coal mine while finishing his bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Washington. He became Manager of the company in 1982 and served until retirement in 2022.
But Bill’s commitment to local communities goes far deeper than even the old Ravensdale mine. He has spent much of his adult life also seeking to trace, document, and protect the history of his community, donating his free time to many local organizations, including the Black Diamond Historical Society, the Enumclaw Plateau Historical Society, the King County Centennial Commission, the King County Rural Forest Commission, open space and parks committees, and others.
He has written extensively about the history of the region, in articles, historical society papers, HistoryLink.org, and other published works. He’s also compiled and edited many other articles, family histories, and more. Bill believes that history has the answers for many of the issues that confront us today. Quoting wisdom from those before, Kombol says, “All new news, is simply old news happening to new people.”
Bill and his wife, Jennifer live in Black Diamond and have three sons – Oliver, Spencer, and Henry.
This marks the eighth year that councilmembers have each selected someone from their district whose work embodies the spirit of King’s question.