Brian and Deborah Rodda service SPU, treat their souls
Seattle Pacific University has maintained a field station on Blakely Island since 1976 for students and faculty to visit and utilize for classes, program retreats and faculty interviews. During weekends in the school year and throughout the summer, the Field Station hosts faculty and students conducting research and observational surveys of the island’s habitats and ecology of lakes, marine bays and forests.
Dr. Tim Nelson, a biology professor at SPU, has spent many years between Seattle and Blakely Island conducting class trips, research and hosting interviews and visiting groups. First visiting the island in 1984 as a student himself, Nelson has seen multiple caretakers inherit and look after the university’s field station.
“There have been different caretakers over the years that have had different approaches. Some ask students to do particular tasks in terms of cleaning up,” Nelson said. “We had one caretaker when I was a student who tended to plan meals very precisely so there were no leftovers. At [one] time, our caretaker was a pilot who had his own plane that flew out to Anacortes and got pizza for everybody.”
The station is equipped with a dining hall, dorms, an on-site generator, a water well and a hydroelectric plant. Power outage vulnerability is managed by its on-site generator and nearby hydroelectric dam.
“In terms of generators, we get power from the same grid as back home. We do have a dam and hydroelectric plants where we generate electricity in the wintertime and sell it back to the grid,” Nelson said. “We’re not making much money [but] we’re making enough money to pay for the spare parts to keep the generator and hydro plant running.”
Deborah and Brian Rodda are the current caretakers of the field station, its generator and other utilities. They live at the station year-round to monitor its conditions. They have been the caretakers on Blakely Island since September 2022 and have already experienced a few issues with the station.
“We lost power to the dining hall for three weeks our first winter, we’ve had our septic system go down [and] we’ve had our two vans out of commission for months at a time,” Brian Rodda said.
Logistically, Brian and Deborah divide the total responsibilities for keeping the Field Station afloat between themselves according to their strengths and abilities. As the resident manager, Brian oversees the field station’s technical issues and upkeep (power, water, etc.).
“One of my bigger jobs is to ensure that our drinking water is safe,” Brian Rodda said. “We’re on a well and I monitor that daily, take water samples throughout the year, and then submit samples for testing once a year to the state to certify and get our permit to continue to operate. Plumbing is another big part of that. Each morning I walk through our buildings, do basic tests to see everything’s working from heat to water to monitoring our lake and the dock.”
Another challenge Brian faces when caring for a field station on a remote island is when basic utilities fail or break down. Brian often has to either learn how to fix the issue himself or figure out how to get a mechanic on the island to fix it.
“I try to oversee everything or call somebody else to come up and fix it [but] I’ve had to learn to tackle 90 percent of what’s happened. Last fall, the whole sewer system stopped working. It took over a week to get back up and running,” Brian Rodda said. “It was stressful because I had to learn how to fix it myself, which was satisfying, but it was the grossest job I’ve ever done.”
While Brian manages the station’s technical side, Deborah, as the guest services coordinator, focuses on the station’s food and living facilities.
“Myself and anyone who works for me in the kitchen has to get their food handlers card from Washington State,” Deborah Rodda said. “We have [nutritional and medical] forms that each student fills out [with] their dietary needs and allergies. Then, I check in personally with anyone who listed any issues and make sure that we provide a safe environment here for them that won’t make him sick.”
In addition to their individual responsibilities, Brian and Deborah have other shared responsibilities they work together on, such as ensuring the station’s medical supplies are stocked and prepared for visiting professors and students to use when they need them.
“We make sure that the professors have first aid kits to take with them during the day trips for sprained ankles and cuts and the typical things that happen up here,” Deborah Rodda said. “Thankfully, we haven’t had any major injuries yet but we can get medical services up here if we need to. They just have to fly here or come by boat.”
Besides these issues, a weekly challenge for Brian and Deborah is supplying and resupplying the station’s food, medical and other supplies. At the start of every week, Brian and Deborah travel from Blakely Island to CostCo in Anacortes, Washington, and back.
“The university covers us to leave the island once a week for supplies and errands. Every food item was loaded and unloaded eight times before it finally hit the table,” Deborah Rodda said. “A big part of both of our jobs is just moving things, like carrying food, tools and everything else.”
For all its challenges, Blakely Island is not without its perks. Living on the island year-round gives Brian and Deborah more than enough time to explore and take advantage of the adventures surrounding them each day.
“We just love the environment, exploring the island and spending time on all the trails, on the lake and the ocean,” Deborah Rodda said. “Getting to know a new ecosystem has been really fun, and then watching students from different backgrounds get to do the same when they come to learn, to really appreciate this special place, has been fun.”
Brian and Deborah have enjoyed their time as caretakers for the Field Station and are looking forward to continuing their service to SPU, to students and to themselves.
“We’ve really enjoyed this calling. It’s not a job that either Deb or I anticipated,” Brian Rodda said. “We feel like it is a gift from God [and] we love what we’re doing.”