A fundraiser was started for the family of an Oak Harbor father and artist who lost his life in a bicycle accident on Whidbey Island last week.
Around noon on Aug. 4, deputies with the Island County Sheriff’s Office and North Whidbey Fire and Rescue units responded to an accident on Zylstra Road in which a bicyclist, now identified as 48-year-old Jason Grube, crashed into a stationary vehicle and sustained a neck fracture, according to the coroner’s office. He died at the scene.
Grube is survived by his wife of 22 years, Shannon, and three sons, Montgomery, Wolfgang and Everest.
Friends and family paint a picture of Grube as a devoted father, a talented artist and a loving soul. He grew up in a close-knit family in Wisconsin and later studied design at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Working a creatively restricting job after graduating drove Grube out of the industry and into a staff position at The Navigators, an interdenominational Christian ministry — faith, centered around loving people as they are, was important to him.
In 2016, Grube decided to start his own creative agency, called Headquarters, with Corianton Hale. Headquarters aided its wide variety of clients — including Starbucks, Microsoft and MOD Pizza, as well as the West Seattle Junction football club and the School of Rock in Seattle — with branding and design.
“He was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever known. He was so thoughtful, caring and deeply insightful. He was so funny and generous,” Hale said. “He was an incredible father — he invested so much time into being the kind of man he wanted his boys to become.”
The family moved to Oak Harbor in 2023, when Grube left his fingerprints on the city as a muralist. He recently hand-painted a brightly colored mural adorning the shopfront of A Vintage Affair downtown.
“He was an extraordinary person, one of the best spirits I’ve ever met. (He) made time for everyone. While he was working on our mural, people would stand and talk to him for hours,” Marisa Sedillo, owner of A Vintage Affair, said. “Never did I hear him say, ‘Gotta get back to work.’”
He also mentored several Oak Harbor High School students, specifically recipients of scholarships from the Allgire Project, as they painted their first murals.
“What was remarkable about Jason was, in the limited amount of interactions I had with him, he was always so kind and generous with his expertise, and just had a real spirit for community,” Sarah Schacht from the Allgire Project said.
Grube was a frequent outdoorsman, camping, hiking and biking often. His wife recalled playing Frisbee with her brother-in-law and Everest earlier this week, who “couldn’t stop talking about how much better his dad would have been.”
“He was fun and he was healthy and strong, and he was just so full of life,” Shannon said.
Brett Knutson, a friend of Grube’s since college, organized a GoFundMe for Shannon and her children, thinking of the tough year ahead for them without Grube. As of Tuesday morning, $13,781 has been raised of the fundraiser’s $35,000 goal.
“He was always using his relationships to learn and grow, and he had strong opinions, which is good for somebody who is an artist,” Knutson said. “But if you talked to his clients and people that know him, he is just a really good human first, and he sees the humanity (in) the people that he meets.”
Search “Jason Grube” on GoFundMe to contribute to the fundraiser. According to Shannon, some of Grube’s artwork will be auctioned off during a service celebrating his life at a date to be determined.
