Historian Kent Seavey has dedicated his life to preserving the past.

Sometimes as journalists we interview someone and realize we’re never going to be able to convey that person’s life story in just several hundred words. Pam Marino here, to share this week’s cover story about Kent Seavey, a historic preservationist and museum consultant who has spent the last six decades chronicling and preserving Monterey County’s historic places. 

I first sat down with Seavey in May to write a feature about him for our Face to Face column. About halfway through our 90-minute conversation, I knew I was in trouble. Seavey had such an interesting life and was a walking database of Monterey County’s historic locations, there was no way I could fit it all in one tight space. 

It became a 3,000-word cover story, which probably only scratches the surface of Seavey’s life. I met three more times with Seavey inside his Pacific Grove Victorian home to capture more about his life and the importance of preserving our region’s rich history. Photographer Daniel Dreifuss met with Seavey along the Rec Trail through Cannery Row, the site of an interpretive project completed by a team including Seavey about 18 years ago.

I chronicled just one part of his life—his 30 years in the U.S. Marines and Marine Reserves could be another 3,000-word story—but it’s also meant to preserve for history the man behind so much of the county’s historic preservation, as he estimates he’s written two-thirds of all the historic surveys in the county. Through my research I found many writings by Seavey, but not much about the man himself.

Hopefully this story fills that gap of knowledge and people get to know and appreciate all that Seavey has contributed to Monterey County.