Michael Anthony Gummo
February 5, 1955 - April 24, 2021
Obituary
Michael Anthony Chiofar (aka Gummo, aka Gummo-Bear, aka Bear) was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania on February 5, 1955 to Charles and Shirley (nee Gummo) Chiofar. Michael and his family relocated to Federal Way, Washington in 1962 when his father took a machinist job with Boeing Aerospace.
Michael attended Federal Way Public Schools where he had perfect attendance throughout; he graduated with a 4.0 GPA from Federal Way High School in 1972. He then matriculated at the University of Washington, graduating at the age of 20 with Bachelor’s Degrees in Economics and in Philosophy.
Michael then was hired by Seattle City Light as a Policy Economist creating economics forecasts, cost analyses, and white papers for the public utility. He was admitted to the State University of Buffalo’s School of Law where he attended for 2 years; he transferred to the Hastings School of Law in San Francisco attending for one year.
Following this, Michael traveled the country by car for 6 months, seeing every state except Hawaii. He drove the Alcan Highway terminating in Fairbanks as his final stage of this journey, then returning to Seattle. Michael then set his sights on world travel.
Over a one year period, Michael visited Europe, the Soviet Union, the Middle East, China, and Japan as well as stops in between. His favorite nation was USSR where he spent a good deal of time in Leningrad and Moscow.
Michael returned to the Seattle area and began to invest in property. He acquired a world-class coin and stamp collection, a hobby he continued his entire life.
His favorite pastime was holding the government accountable and he filed over 200 lawsuits against local, state and federal entities ranging from property to tort cases. Michael filed these suits because he lived by the principles of fair-play, equity, and honesty—issues he felt politicians and bureaucrats were sorely lacking.
Michael was a unique man who lived life on his terms. He was warm, caring, tolerant, honest, and kind. He will be greatly missed.