Scoutmasters: Troop 125 (and predecessor Troop 24), Chief Seattle Council, BSA

Scoutmasters: Troop 125 (and predecessor Troop 24)

Jack Wallinger, Scoutmaster Troop 125
Photo by Bill Quist, about 1959



July, 1916-1918: Troop 24 Scoutmaster Percy Frazier, Sr.: 

The initial charter we have was dated March, 1917 shows that a troop started March, 1916 at the Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. The Troop number is not on the charter.



Church meeting minutes show that they could not find a scoutmaster for their troop from March to July, 1916. They then got a scoutmaster, Percy Frazier, a man who had led a scout troop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  He was a Presbyterian and probably attended Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. 




Percy Frazier, Helena Independent 1938


Percy Frazier, Sr.  . Scoutmaster Troop 24, 1916-18, Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. This was the beginning of his 25 year career as a Scout leader and professional scouter.  He became a Scout Professional in Seattle, Washington and Wallace, Idaho; Missoula, Montana; Butte, Montana. He was a Ranger Explorer. Born 1884, Illinois; married Margaret, had son Percy born 1911; retired 1942, Butte, Montana; died 1976, Missoula, Montana. When he retired after 25 years at Butte, he and his wife planned to move back to Seattle.


Percy Frazier in 1916 lived at 318 North 74th Street. His occupation was listed in the city directory as salesman for Swift and Company.

In the initial charter the Troop had ten scouts, then eleven scouts joined, and six scouts dropped. Fifteen scouts were active at the end of January, 1917.

According to the Seattle Times, this was Troop 24 (there were only Troops 1-48 in 1916).
A Times Article on April 21, 1918, listed scouts who had received medals for war service (such as bond sales). Troop 24: Percy Frazier, Lewis Ogle, Henry Poincet, Charles R Wells, Frank Wedill, James Wilson and Fred Nystrom (all were names on the March 1917 charter). Also on the list were newer Troop 24 scouts: George Fulsom, George Nickell, Lecil C Miller, Robert Bushell, Eugene Thorpe.

March 25, 1938, the Seattle Times announced the 20th anniversary charter had been given to two troops, Troop 44 and Troop 125. That means Troop 125 was probably organized  in 1917, and first chartered March, 1918. Troop 24 lasted until after WWI, about 1919-1920. 


1918-1921: Troop 125 and 24 Scoutmaster: Lewis Frederick Andrews; born 1877, Wisconsin; real estate dealer, carpenter; died 1968, Puyallup. No spouse or children.

1921-1922 Troop 125 Scoutmaster William Arthur Marzolf: born 1891, Chicago, Illinois; married, 1927, Seattle; died 1968, Seattle. Real Estate Salesman working for Henry Broderick, Inc., Broadway Realty. Trip leader and photographer in The Mountaineers (1915). Handball tournament player.

1922 (temporary) Clark Elbert Schurman Scout Field Executive.  He was in 1922 scoutmaster of Troop 65, 214, and 280.  He left for four weeks to start Scouting in Juneau in May, 1922, so he was probably Troop 125 Scoutmaster starting Jan 8, 1917 unil before May when he was able to secure a new Scoutmaster. 


Passport photo, 1920

 

Clark Schurman, 1939 Left, Dee Molinaar photo


Born 1882, Beloit, Wisconsin; married 1908 Beloit, Wisconsin; died Urbana, Illinois, 1955. Advertising man, Michigan. Editor: Scouting Magazine, New York City. Scout Field Executive, Detroit and Seattle. Drafted into the World War I Army in 1918. Artist, Poet, Writer, Chief Guide Rainier National Park Company, Scoutmaster of West Seattle Troop 65, Designed Camp Long’s Schurman Rock (1938-39 world’s first artificial climbing structure), Camp Schurman at Mount Rainier named for him (built 1962), and he was Director of Camp Long. Silver Beaver award. He attended the first World Scout Jamboree in London, England (his demonstration group received top world honors).
Active member of The Mountaineers and helped start the climing group (training class).    

According to some of his old scouts he sometimes disciplined boys by cutting the Scout emblems off their shirts (Seattle Times, Nov., 2006).
“With his rather brusque military manner and appearance, Clark Schurman reminded me of General John Pershing, famed leader of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. Several of Schurman’s guides were recruited from his Seattle Scout Troop 65, and they were accustomed to addressing him as “Mr. Schurman,” and responding with “Yes, Sir” and “No, Sir” to his requests in the Guide House. But he also hired a few teachers and college professors, and some of them quietly balked at playing the subservient role in this manner. Yet beneath Schurman’s stern surface I found a kindred artistic soul. He had taken a chance and given me the opportunity to enter the world of real mountaineering, and I had no problem treating him with respect.

Schurman's favorite poem (1939):

Last campfires never die,
And you and I on separate ways
to Life’s December,
Will dream by this last fire,
and have This Mountain to remember.”                                     Dee Molenaar 2006

1922: Robert O Baldwin: born in Washington, 1888; married 1911; died 1959, Portland, Clackamas County, Oregon; stationary salesman. 1925 moved to Honolulu, later went to Portland.

1923: Charles Richard Wells: born in England, 1902; came to US in 1910, charter member Troop 24, predecessor of Troop 125, in 1916. 6532 -1st Ave NW, Seattle (1930) married 1922, daughter 1925, son 1928; died 1968 Tacoma, Washington (1930 he was a commercial traveler, selling dry goods.)

1924: Rene Louis Bugnon: born 1895 Great Barrington, Massachusetts; married 1919 Manhattan, New York; died 1978 Seattle. (His father, Paul L. Bugnon, was a charter member of Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, and was born in France, and moved from Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Seattle in 1906.) Rene and his wife moved to Seattle in 1920. Member of the Exchange Club of Seattle. He was a veteran of World War I, Corporal in the Army, served in France, and owned the Northgate Printing Shop.

1927-1929 Clarence Lee Hammons, born 1885 Shouns, Tennessee; married; and died 1956, Seattle. Safety Engineer, Statistician; accident investigator: Seattle Transit. Woodland Park Presbyterian Church member and Sabbath School Superintendent.

Clarence Hammons, 1927

His son Ray Hammons’s patrol made the Troop knotboard in his basement. In 1929 Ray drowned in Echo Lake.

1929-1931 Joseph Winston, born 1887, Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, married Olga A. in 1910, died 1948, age 61.

He was brought to Seattle as a baby in 1888.  Later his family moved to Orilla, near Renton, where she spent most of his childhood.  In 1906 he returned to Seattle and was a bank teller at the National Bank of Commerce until 1918.  He joined Kelly-Clarke, merchandise broker, as an office manager.  He later became secretary-treasurer and at the time of his death he was a partner in charge of partnership accounting.   He was a member and treasurer of Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. He lived near the church.   When he died the newspaper said that he had an estate of $100,000 (this would be about $1,000,000 in today's money). 

He drove the scouts to camp trips in his model T truck; it had no top to stop the rain.  He had two sons Rodney and Bruce, who were Eagle Scouts.  Bruce had a career as a Scout Executive. 

1932-1933 Ray Novak, born 1902, Chicago, Illinois, married, died 1966 Seattle. Came to Seattle in 1928. Pipefitter, Oil company. Member of Building Service Employees Union. He was assistant building superintendant of the General Insurance Company building. .He joined Woodland Park Presbyterian in 1933.

1933-1938 Bruce William Roberts, born 1882 Carthage, Missouri; 1912 marriage Portland, Oregon; died 1968 Seattle. Electrical Engineer. Memeber of the choir of Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, and he was an elder. .  No children.  Photo from 1963. 

1938-1939 George Etsell, Sr., born 1894 Bayview, Wisconsin; married; died 1969 Seattle. Reared at Brinnon, Jefferson County. He was a 1914 graduate of Queen Anne High School. He attended University of Washington and Oregon Agricultural College. He was one of three founders of Issaquah Creamery (sold to Dairygold). He first worked as a dairy chemist, then for his last thirty years as a real estate broker.

1940-1943 Arthur H Taylor, born 1900 Illinois; married 1922; died 1989 Seattle. Salesman. (His father David Taylor was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and he came to the US in 1891, coming to Seattle in 1908.)

1944: Stuart L. Morrison, born 1909, Washington; married 1928, King County, Washington; died 1968 Seattle. Telephone lineman. Boating enthusiast.

1945: Frank V Loewe, Jr. born 1917, Washington, died 1976, Edmonds, Washington.
He was disabled but was able to earn his Eagle badge in 1939 in Troop 125  (He said he was born the same year, 1917, that Troop 125 was formed.).  He stepped in to help out during the War, to help keep the Troop running, until others returned to Seattle.  Later he worked for the FAA in Alaska.

 











Frank Loewe 1934 Lincoln High Yearbook

1946-1948: Maynard Carver Falconer. Birth: 1905 Tacoma, Washington, married: about 1922 and 1969 Contra Costa, California; death: 1988 – Marin County, California. Engineer.

1949-1950: Robert Richard Ripley: born: about 1911, Minnesota; married 1933, Seattle; died, 1960, Seattle.


1950: Manley Miles Morse: born 1900, Michigan; married Chicago; married 1940, Vancouver, Washington; died 1989, San Bernadino, California. Sheetmetal worker

1951-1955  John J. “Jack” Wallinger: born 1910, Canada; naturalized US Citizen, 1921; married 1935 Seattle; died 1985 Seattle. Grocery clerk, Milkman. Silver Beaver award. (See photo above).

1955-1957 Harry E Arvon: born 1909, Seattle; married ; died 1994 Redmond, Washington. Silver Beaver 1957

1957-1964 Jack Wallinger, see above

1964-1970 Richard "Dick","Jay" Carl Jonasson, born 1938, prob. Seattle; married 1967, Seattle. Living in a Minneapolis in a Minnesota Veterans Community and volunteering at North Star Scouting Museum, Saint Paul. 

Richard Jonasson 1966 Seattle Times
"Jay" Jonasson went to John B. Allen elementary school and was in Scouting in the 1950's in Troop 118 as a Life Scout.  Jay says their troop motto was "it is really keen to be in 118".  After high school he enlisted in the Navy and served four years, a little over two years in Hawaii.  He signed up to be Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 121 in the Naval Air Station in Barbers Point, Hawaii.   In 1964, after leaving the Navy he became Scoutmaster of Troop 125 until 1970.  During that time the troop celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 1966.

In 1967 he and four Scouts drove his VW Bus to Idaho to attend the World Jamboree.  They did not have enough money to camp at the official Jamboree site so they camped on a roadside nearby and shared the site with a small Canadian Troop that also was short of money.  He said that at that time he really learned the meaning of the Brotherhood of Scouting.

He was Scoutmaster of Troop 120 in Fremont, from 1970 until 1988.  Then he served in another Troop in Darrington, and served again in New York State, where he had moved to be closer to his sister.

He worked most of his life as a licensed steam plant operator operating heating plants at a Seattle hospital and at a logging company.  Due to a series of strokes in 2004 that limited his mobility, he moved to Minneapolis to the Minnesota Veterans Home to be closer to his brother, who lives in that area.

Although confined to a wheel chair, he manages to come to the North Star Museum of Boy and Girl Scouting every Thursday morning after a long bus ride from Saint Paul via the Metro Mobility Bus.  He works on the patch identification project for three hours each Thursday and has only missed coming once or twice in the past year.  Before leaving he eats lunch with the Director and Volunteer Team Leader then, about 1:30 pm, it is back on the mobility bus for another one hour ride to the Vets home.

Jay commented that he really enjoys his work and seeing the wide variety of patches along with the neat colors and designs that seem to be unique to the region.  He added that the fellowship of working with other Scouters is very important to him and that he really enjoys the company of the lady Director.

His brother Gordon says that he is suffering from dementia now.

                                                     Jay Jonasson, 2009, North Star Museum News.


[source: adapted from North Star Museum News, April, 2009, Volunteer corner. by Gary Gorman, Volunteer Team Leader]


1970-1976 John S. Hartt, born 1928 Centralia; married 1951 King County;  Member of Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. Construction foreman.  He had a stroke in 1991 and it limited his mobility and speech.  He and his wife Peggy lived in Ida Culver retirement apartments, in the Broadview area of Seattle.  He passed away July 4, 2013.   His wife died in March, 2013.

 John Hartt about 1996


1976-1980 Donald Edward Sigmen: born 1935; married 1966 King County. Living in Seattle.  

                                                              Don Siegmen  State website
1980-1981 Peter Charles Poorman, born 1955, married, living in Federal Way.

                                                                   Peter Poorman, 1982


1981 Bob Smith

1981-1983 Peter Charles Poorman, see above

1984 Kenneth B. Shotwell, D.C.: born 1952, chiropractor; married; Living in Arlington.

Kenneth B Shotwell from his office website 2010

1985 Samuel M. Spitzbart, Troop 125 Eagle Scout 1978, born 1959, married, lives in Bellevue.

1985 Eric Madsen, born about 1952, married, living in Lynnwood.

1985 Jerry Adams

1986-88 George W. Grantham. Born 1942, Seattle; married in Borneo; Living in Lake Forrest Park. Peace Corps Volunteer, Social Worker

George Grantham  1989





1989 Katherine Busch

1989-1992 Mark Steelquist, Scout Executive, Eagle Scout. (Scoutmaster Troop 123, 2009-2010.) born 1959, married. Living in North Seattle. Director of Treemendous of Seattle. 

Mark Steelquist 2010 from Troop 123 website

1992-1996 Miles G. Logsdon, born 1953, married. Living in North Seattle. Senior Lecturer, School of Oceanography College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington.

 

Miles Logsdon, piloting a plane, 2010, from his web page


1996-1999 Fred Maslan, born 1946, married. Living in North Seattle.

                                                                   Fred Maslan, 1997


1999-2002 Steve Swicord, married, lives in Ballard, Seattle.

2002-2005 Ted Hopkins, Lives in Sacramento, California.

                                                                    Ted Hopkins 2005
2005-2008 Jay Babcock; 1983 Troop 125 Eagle Scout; Seattle Firefighter,
Naval Reservist (overseas active duty: 2008).  Lives in Everett. 

Jay Babcock, 2005

                                                                Jay Babcock, about 1981
2008-2009 Antonio Ruffin;  lives in Ballard, Seattle.

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                                                                  Antonio Ruffin, 2005
2009-2011 Eric Vegors, living in Seattle.

2011-2013 Eric Linden, living in Seattle.

                                                           Eric Linden Scoutmaster 2011-13

2013-Present  Eric Vegors, living in Seattle

Boy Scout Troop 125: Did it start in 1916? Did the sponsoring Church have two troops?

The initial charter we have was dated March, 1917 shows that a troop started March, 1916 at the Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. The Troop number is not on the charter.

Church meeting minutes show that they could not find a scoutmaster for their troop from March to July, 1916. They then got a scoutmaster, Percy Frazier, a man who had led a scout troop in Canada.

Percy Frazier, Scout Field Executive: Seattle, Washington. Scoutmaster Troop 24, 1916-18, Woodland Park Presbyterian Church. Scout Executive: Wallace, Idaho; Missoula, Montana; Butte, Montana. He was a Ranger Explorer Born 1885, Canada; retired 1942, Butte, Montana; died 1976, Missoula, Montana.

Percy Frazier was a scout field executive, and lived at 318 North 74th Street. His occupation was listed in the city directory as salesman for Swift and Company.

In the initial charter they had ten scouts, then eleven scouts joined, and six scouts dropped. Fifteen scouts were active at the end of January, 1917.

According to the Seattle Times, this was Troop 24 (there were only Troops 1-48 in 1916).
A Times Article on April 21, 1918, listed scouts who had received medals for war service (such as bond sales). Troop 24: Percy Frazier, Lewis Ogle, Henry Poincet, Charles R Wells, Frank Wedill, James Wilson and Fred Nystrom (all were names on the March 1917 charter). Also on the list were newer Troop 24 scouts: George Fulsom, George Nickell, Lecil C Miller, Robert Bushell, Eugene Thorpe.

March 25, 1938, the Seattle Times announced the 20th anniversary charter had been given to two troops, Troop 44 and Troop 125. That means Troop 125 was probably organized with some scouts from Troop 24 sometime in 1917 or early 1918, and first chartered March, 1918. (Troop 125 was not mentioned by name in the Seattle Times until after September, 1921; usually the paper had many mentions of most troops, it is not known why Troop 125 was not mentioned for so long.)

2.

Church meeting minutes show that in April, 1918 there were two scout troops sponsored by the Church. Mr. Frazier became a scout executive and moved to Wallace, Idaho, and gave over the scoutmaster work to Lewis Andrews. Mr. Andrews reported: “The boys are doing better work now that there was competition between the two troops. The boys were showing a keener interest…”

Fred Baker said that he joined Troop 125 in February, 1920. He lived across the street north of the Church. (He got his Eagle badge in 1926).

In 1923 Troop 125 Scoutmaster was Charles R. Wells, 22 years old, one of the Troop 24 original charter scouts. Don Bushell was a Troop 125 scout (6012 Sycamore Ave.) who’s older brother Robert was a troop 24 member in 1918. (Before 1925 Troop 24 was no longer at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, but sponsored by Cascade School PTA, south of Lake Union.)

Gordon Merritt

Falls Off Of Mountains, Troop 125 Alumni and Scouts.

Three Troop 125 Eagle scouts were injured in a climb down from the top of McClellan Butte near Snoqualmie Pass in mid-April, 1941. They were caught in an avalanche and tumbled down 1,000 feet, and were almost buried in snow.

Claude Covington, Jay Gage, and Ben Bryant.

Claude joined the Navy in WWII and died in 1944 when his submarine sank off of Hawaii. Jay Gage was in Harborview Hospital to recover from head injury. He went on to become head of a large seafood company and retired and passed away in 1987. Ben Bryant went in the Navy and graduated from the U of W and Yale in Forestry and became a professor at the U of W. He retired and is still alive at 92 and attending Woodoand Park Presbyterian Church (he has been a member since 1928).

First Picture We Have Of Troop 125 Scouts: 1925

James and William Cunningham, twins, new scouts in Troop 125,

were pictured eating lunch on a Seattle scout outing to Mercer Island. They lived at 6812 Phinney Avenue. Seattle scouts cleared four miles of trail in the second growth timber and brush. The photograph was in the Seattle Times April 26, 1925.

Raymond Hammons and the Troop 125 knotboard

Raymond Hammon's picutre was taken 1927, he was son of scoutmaster Clarence Hammons.
Raymond's patrol made the troop 125 knotboard in his basement. Raymond drowned 27 July 1928 at Echo Lake. After that Mr. Hammons resigned as Scoutmaster and the knotboard was given the troop. It was restored about 1993 after having been nailed to the wall in the church basement for years.

Loody Christofero, 1936 Ealge Scout, Troop 125, paid obituary

Lodovico S. "Loody" CHRISTOFERO

Lodovico S. "Loody" CHRISTOFERO Born: Seattle, Washington ~ April 3, 1917 Died: Seattle, Washington ~ December 2, 2010 L. S. "Loody" Christofero, well known for his service as the Boy Scout executive of the Chief Seattle Council died on December 2, 2010. He was 93 years old, but forever young in his pursuit of life. Loody had a vital lifetime interest in the Boy Scout movement, both as a volunteer and professional. He became an Eagle Scout and served as a youth leader in his Ballard Troop 125. He was then selected as a staff member for Camp Parsons where he led treks in the Olympics, and served as water front director. The swim beach there is named in his honor. Loody graduated from Ballard High School in 1935 and attended Seattle School of Business. His interest in the beauty and challenge of the mountains started during those days of Camp Parsons adventures, and remained with him throughout his life. He was a skilled mountaineer and climbed most of the peaks of the Northwest. In addition he was an enthusiastic backpacker, hiking literally thousands of miles in the Cascades and Olympics. Loody was an avid and accomplished skier too, making breath-taking runs even in his 80s. His professional Scouting career commenced as a field executive in Seattle. He served for two years until he was called up for World War II. During the war Loody was a pilot flying the "hump" (the Himalayas) withC-46 cargo planes supplying the China Burma India Theater. Enemy aircraft were a threat, but also the hazardous high altitude weather conditions. Loody flew more than 70 missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaves, the highest recognition given by the Air force for bravery and exemplary service. Upon returning from WWII in 1945, Loody was re-employed by the Seattle Boy Scout council and soon became Scout executive for Wenatchee, Washington. In 1951 however, he was called to duty during the Korean War, and he and his family were stationed in England. Following discharge in 1953, Loody continued his Scouting career as Scout executive in Bellingham, and then in 1959 he was elevated to deputy regional executive in Portland Oregon. On December 1, 1966 he accepted the position of Scout executive for the Chief Seattle Council. This was a dream come true for Loody and for the multitude of Scouts, volunteers and friends who knew of his excellence and great leadership abilities. They were anxious to serve with him. Over the next eight years he guided them with wisdom, and overcame the very difficult financial problems associated with Seattle's economy. He led the council to higher and higher levels of excellence and achievement. In 1974 he advanced once again, to become director of camping and outdoor programs for the National Council BSA. He retired in 1979. Boy Scouting has recognized Loody with two awards for Distinguished Service: one, the Silver Beaver, awarded in Seattle, and the next, the Silver Antelope awarded by the Western Region. One of Loody's favorite inspirational pieces was HIGH FLIGHT written by a fellow officer and pilot. Here is a fitting line he cherished: "I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air, up the long delirious burning blue, I have topped the windswept heights with easy grace." Flying was clearly a high grace for Loody. He wanted to share this grace, and upon his retirement became a docent at the Seattle Museum of Flight. The museum provided material for an article which appeared in the Seattle Times on Veteran's Day, 2010 "MEET A HERO." It described 93 year old Loody Christofero of Seattle, C-46 andB-17 pilot during World War II and the Korean War, retired Major who spent seven years protecting his country. Loody Christofero took many people along with him in service to his fellow man, as one reads and promises in the Boy Scout Oath, which he lived. He will be missed by his loving family and friends. Loody was preceded in death by his parents; and by his wife Eleanor Cryor Christfero, son Anthony, brother Antonio, and sister Maria "Jenny" Libby. He is survived by his daughter Carol Christofero-Snider (Randall), granddaughters Heather E. Snider and Hattie Snider-McDonnell (Michael), soon-to-be McDonnell great grandchild, and niece Melody Libby. In lieu of flowers please send memorials to Chief Seattle Council, Boy Scouts of America, 3120 Rainier Ave S., Seattle, WA 98144, or to the Museum of Flight, 9404 East Marginal Way S, Seattle, WA 98108. A gathering of friends and loved ones will be held at the Museum of Flight on Monday December 13, at 1:00 p.m.
Published in The Seattle Times from December 9 to December 12, 2010

1927 Establishment of Troop 122, with the help of Troop 125

Oct. 2, 1927 Seattle Times

Thirty-seven out of thirty-nine scouts, all uniformed, who showed up at the Monday night meeting of Troop 125, were the incentive for the formation of a new troop. Troop 125 will keep twenty-four of the scouts, including three Eagle Scouts, and the other thirteen will be the nucleus for the new Troop 122. Jack Rhodes, a newcomer to Seattle scouting, will be the new troop's scoutmaster, and Ralph Franklin, a former Seattle scout, will be the assistant scoutmaster.

This new Troop 122 met at John B. Allen School.

Rudi Becker, Part Two

Rudolph "Rudi" Milford Becker was named after Uncle Milford and father Rudolph.
He lived in Ballard and started in Scouts in Troop 125 in 1925. In the summers he went to Eastern Washington, probably to live with their Uncle in Benton City. He was active in the Scouts except for the period 1928-1929, when he probably lived in Benton City and gone to school there. He had been expelled from Ballard for his "practical jokes". He also always had a surplus of energy and was what might be called a hyperactive person. He liked to have fun each day and live life to the fullest. He thought he would have to live five hundred years to do all that he wanted to do.

In the US Census of 1920 and 1930, he lived at 7507 10th Ave NW or 11th Ave NW. His father was a bond salesman. He had two sisters and a brother. He lived next door to scout friend Al Simonsen in the 1930 census.

He enjoyed going to the Seattle waterfront and seeing the ships and docks.

Rudi graduated from Ballard High School in 1931 age 18, and got his Eagle badge.

He graduated in the worst of the Great Depression and he says he worked in many parts of the United States and its territories. He did not speak of this time and did not talk about what he did during the War.

He was oversized, large and loud. He said that he weighed seven stone and stood nineteen hands high: he was huge.

He said that he had married three times before the end of the War. We know that in 1937 he married Marjorie Williams in Skagit County. In 1943 he married Betty Shrode Tremper in King County.

In 1946 he bought a government surplus launch for $3,000. In 1947 he used the tug Dusty to pick up logs on beach lost from rafts... with wife Betty.

In 1950 he started to work each summer for ten years on the waterfront as manager and barker for the Elliot Bay Tour Company. He also by 1952 was securing customers for a charter fishing boat. He also worked in Alaska. He had a ready store of sea lore that he could tell.

At 949 NW 64th, in early 1950's he built a house and wired and plumbed it. He did not finish it, and sold it in 1952.

Later he had a house at 11117 7th Ave NW, near Carkeek Park. He lived next door to his brother Bob. He fashioned the front door and many parts of the home from scrounged material from ships and beachcombed from beaches.

About 1960 he married Kay, Katherine, a teacher at Lake City elementary school.

About 1960 he became a sales engineer working with his brother Bob for Olympic Prefabricators company that built buildings.

They moved to a home that had been a stable at 737 Carkeek Drive. They build onto and remodeled this home to show off the parts of ships and stain glass windows they had collected.

He said that he was a lecturer, composer, skin diver, beach comber, craftsman, inventor, photographer. From this home Rudi took pictures that were published in the newspaper of a coyote in Carkeek Park and a deer in their orchard.

Sometime in the 1970's he was a salesman for the Garco Western Company selling construction materials for building projects in Alaska.

He was a booster of Seattle and loved the mountains, deserts, and waters of Washington.

Rudi Becker was everybody's favorite "practical joker." Honk a horn overly long behind Becker and he was liable to come back to your car, lift the hood, yank out the horn wires and say pleasantly, before driving off, "Your horn was stuck, but I fixed it."
In the early 1950's Rudi put on a deer suit and drove his friend, Al Cummings, radio disk jockey, around town. A man (a dummy) was tied to their front bumper.
Rudi hated cars behind him honking honking their horns at him on the Ballard Bridge.
Emmett Watson documented in a book that Rudi pointed a huge rifle at a rude driver and fires, detonating a noisy air horn that leaves the rudenik "in a pallid state of near seizure." (Rudi did this because "Some people have to be taught to be nice to other people"-)

In the 1970's he drank at John Franco's Hidden Harbor and Francisco's. Had his own glass at Franco's. He liked to show the boys at Franco's his inventions; which could not do any practical thing, or provide a useful purpose. He sometimes had a picture of his inventions in the newspaper, and sometimes the Associated Press picked up his pictures.
One invention at his place above Carkeek Park was a bird feeder that was supposed to be critter proof, but did not work.

He had many newspaper reporters and photographers and he counted some among his best friends. He called and contacted them often to tell them his idea or to some see his house. Most of what he told them or showed them was newsworthy, and published in the newspaper.


He was called "quintessentially Seattle", by Emmett Watson, a newspaper columnist.

He died on 11 October 1976 due to a heart attack. In his last will and testament he said: "It's a wonderful world, and anybody who dosen't like this life is crazy."