Tina Rieman: A life of embracing life’s adventures and challenges
Tina Rieman of Leavenworth has lived by a simple philosophy: life is a series of adventures that present opportunities to learn and grow even into the nineties. Along the way, she has built deep and lasting friendships with others who shared her energetic lifestyle.
That energy has taken her to the summit of Mount Rainier, inspired her and her late husband, Dick, to build a log home in Leavenworth, led them to perform for forty hears with the Marlin Handbell Ringers, and fueled a lifelong passion for embracing an outdoor life.
Those relationships have also sustained Rieman through life’s inevitable losses, including the death of her husband, and moving her twin sister to assisted living.
Lately, Rieman has been thinking about her own mortality. True to the philosophy that has guided her life, she is determined to approach its final chapter simply as the next adventure.
She is one of four local elders who have met regularly since January as part of Elder Speak, a project exploring the meaning and lessons of long lives. The other participants are former pastor and mental health counselor Jim Caulkins, Community for the Advancement of Family Education co-founder Alma Chacon, and artist and art educator Terry Valdez.
This fall, they will share their reflections with the public at Snowy Owl Theater in Leavenworth and the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.
One lesson Rieman has come to value is the importance of relationships. “At my age, what’s the most important, most valuable thing in my life?” she asked. “My connections with people.”
What matters most, she said, is belonging to a community and feeling connected to the larger human family.
She places deep value on her years with the Special Needs Community, initiating, with her daughter, the first Special Olympics ski program in Leavenworth which lead to years participating in Upper Valley Connection’s many Special Needs activities. Being part of these programs has been another adventure in her life.
Rieman and her twin sister were born in Seattle in 1934 in a home their architect father designed and built. After their mother died while they were young, the girls were largely raised by a housekeeper until their father remarried. They felt fortunate to have two younger sisters added to the family when they were in their early teens. Having a twin meant there was always someone to share life’s adventures. The sisters roamed Seattle by foot, bicycle and bus with remarkable independence. It was a safe world, she recalls.
Rieman graduated from the University of Washington in physical education at just 20 years old, married that same year and raised three children with her first husband.
Her passion for mountaineering began in her early 30s when she borrowed equipment from her aunt and joined her uncle on a climb of Mount Rainier. She had never walked on a trail or carried a pack. “Summiting Mount Rainier changed my life,” she said.
After her first marriage ended, she found a kindred spirit in Dick Rieman, a commercial airline pilot whose enthusiasm for adventure matched her own.
Together they built a life centered on the outdoors and creative pursuits. Tina embraced emerging technology, using an early personal computer to produce graphic design work for the Leavenworth Echo and a local graphics studio.
Rieman’s professional life took a significant turn when the late Harriet Bullitt hired her and her and a friend to share the marketing position at the fledgling Sleeping Lady Resort. It was the first job she held that included employee benefits, she admits laughing.
Through every stage of her life, the mountains remained her constant companion.
Rieman was also an accomplished sailor. After her father bought a 55-foot ketch, the family sailed the boat to Hawaii and then home to Seattle. Three years later the family moved from Seattle to Honolulu, sailing across the Pacific Ocean a second time.
Her passion for sailing and skiing lead to years of teaching classes in both sports, pursuits she loved throughout much of her adult life.
Looking back, she considers herself extraordinarily fortunate.
“I have been so blessed in my life in so many ways, and the only times that I’ve ever been hungry or cold were when I’ve been in the mountains or on the ocean, and those were my choice,” Rieman said.
The first half of Tina Rieman’s life unfolded in Seattle. The second has been spent exploring the mountains, rivers and trails surrounding Leavenworth.
Few people have embraced life with more enthusiasm or gratitude. Tina Rieman has never stopped looking for the next adventure.
