Pat Good earned his reputation as an outstanding cook, most notably when he prepared barbecued salmon for large crowds attending the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner.

He came by his culinary skills naturally.

Good’s mom, Mary Acocello (1909-2002), co-owned with her sister, Clara, a coffee shop in Burlington and once ventured to Alaska to cook at a hotel, where patrons told her she “was the best cook we ever had.”

But that’s only half her story. Make that, one-third – as Acocello was also a highly skilled shipyard welder during World War II and later was the first woman to se...