Source: The Seattle Times

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002152749_monk17m.html

On January 17, 2005 The Seattle Times reported, "hundreds of people gathered beneath the soaring roof of the Washington Buddhavanaram Buddhist Temple yesterday to mourn the death of a national leader of Thai Buddhists who guided construction of a building that is a religious and cultural mooring for the area's faithful. Sixty-six-year-old Smai Harnsoatthi, the temple's abbot, died Wednesday after complaining of chest pains and collapsing, ending a tenure that spanned 21 years in the Puget Sound area. In that time, Harnsoatthi led a group of worshippers that grew from an estimated 20 families to 800 members and had moved from a rented house to a mobile home to a resplendent temple... Harnsoatthi, known as 'luangpor' or 'father monk' by temple members, served as part spiritual adviser, part fund-raiser and part building contractor, eventually rising to chief U.S. monk in the Dhammayutt order of Theravadan Buddhism."