The Summit

Diane Ahroni

Diane Ahroni, Di, was born on January 5th, 1955 at the Swedish Hospital in Seattle. Di is the daughter of Charlotte and Lee Ahroni, who met on a blind date and then eloped 18 days later on election night. Charlotte’s family was from Austria and Charlotte grew up in the Bronx in New York City. Lee’s family was from Russia. Lee’s mother and father moved to Canada before Lee was born, but his parents wanted him to be a US citizen so weeks before Lee was born his parents moved from Vancouver to Seattle. After they got married, Charlotte worked on the opening of the King dome and was in charge of VIP panels so she met over 100 celebrities. Later, Charlotte became a part of the secret service, so she met over a dozen of the presidents and first ladies, and even the queen of England. Lee was in the coast guard and later became the first private tenant of Port of Seattle, piers 66, 68, 39, 42, and 32. Charlotte and Lee had three children, Di’s older brother, Kenneth (Ken), Di, and Di’s younger sister Joanne. Di grew up in the Seward Park area and attended Whitworth elementary school and later Mercer Island High school.

Di was raised as a reformed Jew and attended Temple De Hirsch Sinai for Sunday school. She was also bat mitzvahed as a teen and continues to practice Judaism now. One of Di’s favorite memories was at her brother’s bar mitzvah because that was the first time the orthodox rabbi and the reform rabbi were together. What impacted Di most in the Jewish religion was tradition. Di follows the tradition of lighting Shabbat candles when she can and enjoys it greatly. She also lights a yahrzeit candle for her grandmother every year. Di’s grandmother was one of her greatest influencers and helped her appreciate traditions in the Jewish religion. Di now refers to herself as a sentimentalist.

In 1973 Di graduated from Mercer Island High School and moved her studies to early childhood education at Bellevue Community College. After college Di worked at the Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island to start her career. Later, Di decided to work for Charles Royer, the mayor of Seattle at the time.

A historical event that changed Di’s life was 9/11. Before the tragic event occured, Di and her family went to the top of the World Trade Center in 1970 for a family reunion. Then on 9/11 when the tragic event happened, Di watched on TV as the buildings came burning down and all she thought was “I was there.” Also Di’s aunt lived in New York so as the event happened Di’s family did not hear from Di’s aunt for five hours which caused distress in her family. Another historical event that impacts Di to this day is the Idaho earthquake of 1983. As the earthquake occured Di was at her job in the mayor’s office and watched her desk shake as
the earthquake that killed two children in Idaho hit the Seattle area.

Di has also been in the paper multiple times. The first time was when the Seattle Art Museum opened. Di was first in line and got her picture taken which was later on published in the Seattle Times. The second newspaper appearance was at the opening of the Seattle Public Library. Again Di was first in line with her picture later published in the Seattle Times again. Di’s biggest newspaper appearance was her essay, “Student and teacher forged a long lasting relationship,” which was published in the Seattle Times. The essay is about how her and her third grade teacher became close friends and how they influenced each other about life. Di had
one more appearance not in a newspaper, but in the Stranger magazine with George Bush, titled, “George Bush pushes her buttons.”

Di is a very artistic person and she says she gets it from her grandmother and her aunt. Di loves knitting and one time spent 92 hours knitting a blanket for her mother, Charlotte, who now lives at the Kline Galland. Di also likes poems, but she especially loves quotes. A quote that impacts Di’s life every day is “If is in the middle of the word life.”