Obituary: Deb Sogge nurtured small businesses as Sammamish Chamber’s first CEO
For nearly two decades, the Sammamish Farmers Market has catered to local residents during the warmer months. Featuring fresh produce, food trucks, businesses booths and musical performances, the market has become a wonderful place of gathering for the entire community.
Our farmers market exists largely because of Deborah “Deb” Sogge, who served as the first CEO of the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce. She passed away on Feb. 15, 2026, after a long battle with diabetes. She was 74.
Sogge spent more than two decades nurturing small businesses in Sammamish. She began in 2002, when she worked for a local company called Welcome New Neighbor. Sogge would visit the homes of new Sammamish residents and bring a welcome basket filled with swag and coupons that she sourced from businesses in the area.
Local resident Susannah Pryal, 55, remembers when Sogge visited her in 2002 with a welcome basket. Sogge sat down with her at the kitchen table and gave a marketing pitch for each item. Pryal ended up visiting the hair salon that Sogge recommended.
“It was nice because I was a young mother…and I really didn’t know anybody,” said Pryal. “It felt very small town to me.”
The experience of selling door-to-door gave Sogge a unique perspective on what it took to succeed as a business in Sammamish. That expertise made her invaluable when the Sammamish Chamber needed a full-time CEO to help it grow.
Kirsten O’Malley, the owner of Pacific Learning Academy and a former Chamber president, remembers Sogge as someone who always brought new ideas to the table, whether it was growing Chamber membership or growing her customer base. Sogge would often write personal emails to connect O’Malley to customers and other business owners, or invite her to attend or speak at events.
“She’s one of the reasons why I’m still in Sammamish and why I chose to ground my school here and grow it here,” O’Malley said. “I think it’s because Deb treated the business owners of Sammamish as if we were a part of her family.”
The Sammamish Farmers Market remains Sogge’s most enduring legacy. She took on the project after the City government decided it did not want the responsibility and delegated it to the Chamber.
Sogge negotiated a $10,000 annual subsidy from the City, as well as usage of Sammamish Commons as the venue. The first farmers market opened in 2008. It has operated every year since.
Dawn Sanders, who served as Chamber president in 2008, recalls Sogge as being instrumental in convincing the Chamber to take on the farmers market.
She told us the market “gives our members an opportunity to really advertise themselves, as form of sponsorships or as business vendors,” Sanders said. “That’s the thing about Deb. She was always doing everything she could to support small businesses in the community.”
Sogge later led the Chamber through the COVID-19 pandemic, when membership plummeted and Sammamish City Council suspended the farmers market. She scrambled to find a new location at the Red Barn Farm, where the farmers market operated in 2020 and 2021.
Karen McKnight, a broker with Keller Williams Realty and former Chamber president, credits Sogge for persevering and leading the Chamber through that difficult time.
“She never complained about what was going on with the city or any of that stuff,” McKnight said. “She just went in there and said we’re just going to keep moving forward. And I think it was because of her hard work that we just kept going.”
During the 2021 market at the Red Barn, Sogge took a hard fall while loading equipment into a trailer parked on gravel, and broke her hip. She ended up losing her mobility, and her health never fully recovered, according to her husband, Kent Sogge. She continued to run the Chamber and farmers market for two more years. She made calls to vendors from her bed as she recovered from hip replacement surgery.
“She was just tenacious from that standpoint. We’re gonna get it done. We’ll figure it out. There’s always a way,” Kent Sogge said. “That’s just the way she felt.”
Sogge’s son, Nicholas, believes his mother’s success was based on her kindness and integrity, which he now tries to emulate in his sales role for Ever-Green Tree Care.
“She always did the next right thing that could end up helping others,” Nicholas Sogge said. “That’s what I do now. I just try to do the next right thing, and keep in mind that you can only keep what you have by giving it away.”
Deborah Sogge is survived by her husband Kent, and children Nicholas, Garrett, and Kate.
