It happened just into the new year, but it’ll go down as one of the great parties of the whole year. Hundreds of ex- and soon-to-be-ex-Washington Mutual employees, innocent passengers in one of the biggest train wrecks in banking history, gathered at the Triple Door to celebrate (yes, why not?) the demise of the once-mighty hometown institution they served, and raise money for an ex-employee assistance fund founded by retired WaMu executives. The Nowhere Men, a fab Beatles cover band, sang songs so fitting it was scary, from “I Should Have Known Better (Than To Hold That Stock)” to “(I Get By) With a Little Help From My Friends.”

Seattle Met was there, but our brief report omitted one vital fact: the name of the hostess-with-the-mostest who created this unforgettable WaMu Last Hurrah. She’s a pint-sized package of dynamite named Iris Glaze, and she should know a thing or two about accommodating guests. Back when WaMu was "the friend of the family," Glaze was its shareholder services manager, staging annual meetings and, as she puts it, “trying to make people feel good.” Now she laments the loss of what was a famously warm corporate culture, and the fact that JPMorgan Chase, which snatched up WaMu for a song, has decided to kill its School Savings program for kids, instituted in the 1930s: “Up until the last days before the company’s demise, I got phone calls from shareholders who started their banking relationship with WaMu as they deposited nickels and dimes in their School Savings accounts.”{% display:image for:post image:2 align:right height:170 %}

Iris Glaze has something else to worry about: She’s one the hordes of talented ex-Wamoolians looking for work at the worst possible time. We can attest that she knows how to throw a heckuva party, even in tough times.