Frank Burford Rayle was born on Aug. 7, 1938 in Pasadena, Calif. to Alice Baker Rayle and Wilbur Burford Rayle. He passed away peacefully among family and friends on Oct. 17, 2009. He is survived by his wife Betty and three children, Julie, Steven and Lindsay.

He spent the early years of his life enjoying the California sunshine, working in his father’s pickling and jam factory, and joking around with his good friends. He graduated from San Marino High School in its first graduating class in 1956 and proceeded on to Claremont McKenna College, where he graduated in 1960 with a degree in economics.

After college, he worked at Security Pacific Bank for eight years as a bank auditor and then bank manager. During this time he met and married Betty Johnston in 1966.

After “losing his interest” in banking, he and Betty started to collect antique mutoscopes, stereopticon viewers and nickelodeons — an interest of Frank’s that started when he was young.

After amassing a sizable collection of machines, Frank placed them in tourist locations such as Movieland Wax Museum and Universal Studios for everyone to enjoy.

The family moved to San Diego from La Canada, Calif. in 1974 where Frank started an old-fashioned ice cream parlor complete with antique tin ceilings, pull-chain toilets and homemade ice cream. Frank built the brick building mainly by himself over a period of years. It resembled an old-time drugstore with real antique ice cream chairs and a fabulous back bar.

Through the years, Frank enjoyed sailing, fishing, family road trips and the constant challenge and sense of accomplishment that he gained from rebuilding the nickelodeons, his sailboat and old cars.

In 1987 the family moved to Whidbey Island, where Frank continued his hobbies and added even more. He loved to “tinker,” cook, create and share it all with everyone, accompanied by a lot of humor and a most fantastic laugh! He built two-pit barbecues, three pizza ovens (to find out which style was best), as well as a bottle house. He baked bread, roasted and smoked meats and made jams and candies.

The most recent projects that he was very proud of were a 1936 Cord car and his early 20th-century Belgian fairground organ, which is still being renovated.

He started Greenbank Cellars winery in 1998, renovating a 100-year-old barn for the tasting room, outfitted with the antique back bar previously used in the ice cream parlor. The winery was another chance for Frank to create something and share with everyone. He loved to visit with the customers to tell them about the wine and wine-making process, always with a joke, of course, and his infectious laugh.

He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.

Services were held Friday, Oct. 23 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Freeland. Please send donations in lieu of flowers to the M-Bar-C Ranch/Forgotten Children’s Fund at www.m-bar-c.com.