It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Mike McGuire after a courageous fight against cancer. Mike was a huge supporter of WAGISA, both as a board member and the 2021 winner of the Washington GIS person of the year. Mike McGuire’s GIS career included both the public and private sectors and he spent the last 22 years as a successful GIS businessman as the sole proprietor of Ascent GIS. Those of you who had the opportunity to meet Mike know that he always had a smile and a laugh to share. He was amazingly humble, and even as the biggest person in the room, he rarely would draw attention to himself. We are so thankful that Mike was a part of our WAGISA family and he will be greatly missed.

Darrell was kind, thoughtful, patient, curious, funny, good natured, methodical, intelligent, diligent, dedicated, and so much more.

He studied at UW Tacoma and got his Bachelors in Urban Studies – GIS and Spatial Planning with a GIS Certificate.

He went on to work at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and the City of Seattle.

He interned at the City of Olympia and City of Puyallup and supported a project at the University of Puget Sound.

You will be missed!