Spec Fulmer surrounded by his watercolors and photography in Gallery North in Edmonds.
Pub. Note: Our thanks to Judith Fulmer, Mr. Fulmer’s wife, for sending us this obituary.
Earl N. “Spec” Fulmer passed away peacefully of heart complications on July 2, 2018 at the age of 75. He is survived by his wife Judith, brother Michael and sister Meadow.
Spec grew up in Grapeview, WA and attended Shelton High School, class of 1961. He was known in high school for his creative artwork and knew very early— when he was 15—that he wanted to attend art school, which he did between high school years, going to Burnley Art School in Seattle (now known as the Art Institute of Seattle). He was a star student and got his first job in Seattle in his teens, doing package design for customers like Rainier Beer. He did freelance commercial art for a number of years before joining a Los Angeles-based company (Superior Fast Freight) as its advertising manager. He met his wife Judith in Seattle and they built their first home near Green Lake and then moved to Magnolia—before moving to Auburn in 2010.
He was the founder of Spectrum Advertising in Seattle and a member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce President’s Club and the Seattle Ad Club. As he was nearing middle age, he decided to do something entirely different in his work career. He undertook his second love—woodworking—and began designing and manufacturing store displays for some large, national companies like Nordstrom and The Bon (now Macy’s). He worked many long hours to make every business he started a success.
In his retirement after 2010, he went back to his first love of art and photography and did a combined painting and photography art show with a good friend from Burnley Art School at Gallery North in Edmonds, WA.
He loved the Seattle area, his family and his work. He was a force to be reckoned with—unlike any other person you have ever met—a wonderful, thoughtful, loving and creative person and a man of great integrity!
There will not be a memorial service, but a small private family gathering will be planned to celebrate Spec’s life.