Kim Raymoure

Kim Raymoure died with dignity on December 14, 2025 from pancreatic cancer in the comfort of their simple Seattle home on Capitol Hill. Born in Kansas City, MO, then transplanted over the rainbow to the Emerald City at the turn of the millennia, Kim lived a carpe-diem life with no regrets. Even when painfully inundated with chemo treatments and exhaustingly jarring hospital visits, they projected an aura of peace and acceptance, while supported by beloved chosen family and dear friends.

Seattle helped Kim live their most authentic queer self. With little material possessions, their personal space was filled with rich memories and erudition. Kim enjoyed getting to know their beloved city with long walks, sipping tea at the nearest tea house, talking with crows among other Seattlites, reading a good book at Volunteer Park, chatting with strangers on Metro buses, and visiting Guanyin at the Seattle Art Museum. They saw the inherent magic in the mundane, and found joy and adventure in any situation. Kim was someone who valued meaningful conversations, focusing on the bits that actually mattered, rather than the things our society says should matter. They easily connected with people and animals and had a loud, joyful laugh they loved to share with others. Although you wouldn’t know it, they were an introvert and needed times of solitude, but this was balanced with their genuine interest in others. Their Taoist beliefs and adoration of Hestia, the Greek Goddess, drove them to thoughtfully reinvent their life so many times. They believed that each of us are the only person we should ever be, that anything else was a waste of time and effort.

While Kim’s beauty didn’t fit neatly into a category, their green eyes and flowing red hair were exotically beautiful to many. They loved fully and forgivingly no matter the orientation of romantic interest(s), and they fell for one’s true essence without judgment. However their greatest loves were their connected family, friends, friends' children–to whom they were an amazingly patient “Anti”, and their long-lived “stinky” (Kim-speak for tricky or sneaky) and “fierce” (adorable failed attempts at bravery) pet, Widget the cat.

When excited, Kim talked faster and more intensely. Fueled by their autistic superpowers, Kim dove deep into some niche subjects, and their fascinations were infectious. Notably, for over 5 years Kim fervently studied and attempted to decipher Linear A, an ancient dead Minoan writing system, and published a white paper with their findings. Kim also began the painstaking task of building out the entire genealogy of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment, one of the few Black regiments during the Civil War. Kim held an unsated curiosity. An easy answer wouldn’t cut it, they would always ask more questions. Let them loose inside an archaeological site, and they would take a photo of every stone, every nook and cranny in the masonry. Let them near anything Minoan and they would ferociously take notes, while forgetting to eat, drink and keep out of the sun.

Kim’s determination filled many corners of their life, whether it was their vegetarianism or continual improvement of their illustrations and shading with markers, creating numerous portraits of robots, plants, animals and friends in the process. Music and dance always lifted the spirit of this already optimistic individual. Afterlife, Century Ballroom, Chop Suey, Contour, Last Supper Club, The Merc and Neighbours were their favorite Seattle haunts, where they would liberatingly groove to a wide range of music. They especially loved immersing themself in the Peace, Love, Unity and Respect community at raves, listening to Electronic Dance Music, and, of course, found themself dabbling in synthesizing their own EDM. They were an early pioneer of online gaming, getting involved with a text-based game called Ragnarok in the early 90s, which led to many real-life friendships, back when meeting people online was weird and exotic, requiring long explanations. Later, they enjoyed competitively playing Dungeon Crawlers and Baldur’s Gate II with friends deep into the night. This nerdy aptitude of Kim’s, combined with their degree in Computer Engineering from KU, landed them jobs first at Amazon and then at successful Seattle based startup darlings such as Isilon Systems Inc. and Skytap, but their favorite job was with the Queen Anne Book Company.

Kim’s kindness was radical and beyond empathetic. After working in tech for 20 years, they left the industry for more meaningful work in alignment with their moral beliefs in social justice. They had been fully committed to lifting others in large and small ways, from direct donation to myriad causes, to creating their own art to gift to others. Kim volunteered many hours at non-profits such as the Chinese Information and Service Center, Literary Source, Beacon Hill Talk Time and Books to Prisoners. With Seattle’s homeless crisis in despair, big-hearted Kim would visit countless homeless folks regularly to connect and converse, and help them source necessities alongside mutual aid groups. Kim was the kind of person who would stop for an unhoused person struggling with their cart full of belongings and help them get to where they needed to go, or organize a fundraiser to get them into permanent housing.

It was Kim’s mantra to get away from the “us and them” to bring everything back to “we”. They were always like this, even when they were an angsty teenager, and it was one of the things they loved about themself and considered to be worthy of love throughout their life. Not everybody is open and ready for it, but when they encountered people who were, they could connect in that moment, and be better humans for it. They had daily interactions like this with strangers and friends. As an example, one day, Kim was walking down the 1st Ave corridor with their headphones on, on their way to Magic Mouse Toys, when an unhoused man, also wearing headphones, made eye contact with them and gestured about this commonality. Without hesitating, Kim stopped, removed their headphones and held them up to his ears. He closed his eyes, listened and approved. Kim put the headphones back on, threw him an enormous smile to show that they were all in this conspiracy together, and that we humans, we’re going to be ok, and then walked on, totally unconcerned. The man shouted happy blessings after them; people were always talking to Kim. Later, they didn’t even remember the details of this encounter because it was just one of so many other incidental wonderful moments. We should all strive for similar moments. It’s a “we” thing.

Kim’s cremated ashes will be scattered in Elliot Bay, aboard the 10am Washington State Bremerton Ferry sailing on March 21, 2026, departing from the Seattle Ferry Terminal. Please arrive at least 30 minutes prior to sailing time and notify the booth attendant that you are part of Kim's memorial service. Let us know if you might be coming and stay informed by filling in Kim Raymoure's Memorial RSVP Google Form. In honor of Kim, please send memorial donations to Books to Prisoners (bookstoprisoners.net) and La Resistencia (laresistencianw.org).