Former DSHS administrator remembered

MOSES LAKE - Louis Bunkelman connected poor people in Grant and Adams counties with the services they needed for survival.

Food, health care, a job or training to get hired were some of those services, explained his wife, Judy Bunkelman of Moses Lake, on Friday.

During the end of his career, the Moses Lake man worked as administrator of the Community Services Office for the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in Moses Lake.

He retired from the state agency in 2001.

He died Wednesday from complications of a heart disease and a blood disorder. He was 68.

Services were held Saturday in Moses Lake and Ellensburg.

As administrator, Louis worked with Big Bend Community College and Goodwill Industries.

"So he did a lot of community outreach," Judy explained.

He worked for DSHS in other roles before the government assistance program,

Louis oversaw the public assistance delivery system and social services in Moses Lake, Othello and Mattawa.

"He really was instrumental in taking the Othello office (and turning it into) a full service office and then in opening the office in Mattawa," Judy said.

The Mattawa office has since closed.

Judy and Louis met while working as social workers. They had a 19 year courtship before marrying.

Louis' long-time friend, Bob Tichbourne, of Stanwood, said they met in 1980 during a canoe trip of state employees down the Winchester Wasteway in Grant County.

The trip was during the same weekend Mt. St. Helens erupted, transforming the day into night with clouds of black ash.

"It was probably a good time to meet him because Louie always came through in a crisis," Tichbourne said. "It was a crisis. It was black as night."

The canoeing group was made up of between 40-60 employees and their children from the Moses Lake and Wenatchee Community Service offices.

"Lewis was just a real hero," Tichbourne recalled. "He helped out and kept it calm."

The two men worked together from 1980 to 1986 for DSHS in Moses Lake.

At the time, they worked in children's protective services and services for adults.

"He was dedicated, inspired and passionate about what he did," Tichbourne said.

One of Lewis' children, daughter Katherine Bunkelman Overkamp, of Norfolk, Va., shared how dedicated her father was to his family.

"He grew up taking care of his siblings," she said. "By the time he was 25, he had five kids. He went from his early life of caring for siblings, to having kids at the age of 25."

"My dad, in my mind, cared for his family and immediately developed his own family," she commented.