The following is really a "work in progress". One memory leads to another.

Here is his picture.

And here is an article about how he changed the way ships were launched.

FREDRICK JOSEPH SCHLOTFELDT

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS

Fredrick Schlotfeldt was born on October 3, 1905, Buckley. WA

When Fred was 2 years old, his sisters Mayme, Catherine and Fred were playing behind the house when Fred slipped into an artesian well. The children tried to reach him and Mayme fell in. Catherine ran screaming for their mother to come. When Ellen realized what had happened she sent Catherine to the mill for help and ran to the well. Pregnant with Leo, Ellen went down the well and held her children above water until help came. The men shut the mill down, lowered ropes to Ellen to tie around the children and hauled them to the surface. Only when they were safe did Ellen allow them to pull her up. When the men nailed sticks together and tried to measure the well, they could not find the bottom. Hans built a screened porch around the back of the house to cover the well so that there would not be another accident.

Years later, around 1986, Catherine visited the house. The present owner was surprised to learn there was a well under the porch and promised to record its presence for future owners.

When Fred was 8 or 9 he spent 3 months at St. Joseph's Hospital, Tacoma, with typhoid fever, not expected to live. Catherine was boarded by the nuns to help take care of Fred. After Fred was well enough to go home, the nuns wanted to keep her there so she could go to school, but her father said she was needed at home. Mayme came from Illinois to help care for him but she stayed only a few days, visiting relatives instead.

The family collected the bark from the logs on the logging trucks that parked near the farm to use for heat and cooking.

The children walked to and from school from their forty acre farm that was half way between Buckley and Enumclaw.

DEATH STRIKES THE FAMILY

Dad's mother, Ellen Donovan, died on May 14, 1920.

Hans had thirteen dairy cows. The boys, Fred, Leo, and Dud, tried to run the farm. Fred worked at White Mill (Boise Cascade ?) for $3.50 for an eight hour day. Dud sent money from his job in Seattle to help with the farm payments.

Catherine tells many stories of the years she and Fred worked together to take care of the family. Her favorite is that he never went to bed at night until the work was done-many a night he stayed up late to help Catherine finish up the evening chores. Those years were filled with work at the mill and on the farm.

His sister, Marguerite, died May 31, 1926, of a ruptured appendix.

Grandpa worked as a miner at the Wilkerson and Carbondao mines while the boys tried to keep the farm going. They were having a hard time making ends meet. Herman's father-in-law knew the bootlegger, and he convinced them to build a still. They put it in the parlor in the farmhouse. The product was picked up by the bootlegger via a faucet OUTSIDE the house. Fred was too busy courting Rose at the time to help Leo and often came home late. Leo had to stay up and watch for the sheriff. Leo's job was to meet the sheriff in the yard and engage in conversation to keep him from getting close to the house. He slept in the chair and listened for the white gate to creak. The sheriff knew about the still and made it to the house one time when Leo fell asleep. He told the boys to "clean it up". They told the bootlegger to come and get his still.

When they knew there was a possibility they would lose the farm, they "bought gallons of white wash" and painted everything in an attempt to spruce the place up and sell it.

They moved to the Toppenish/Granger area, on the reservation--Tom Cook ranch ???

Fred, Jr. recalls Dad telling about loading hay with Leo and then trucking it to various locations around the state. Since Dad was allergic to the dust, Leo insisted that Dad toss the bales to him to stack in the trucks. Once their brakes went out on the truck half way down the hill leading into Toppenish (on the road from Goldendale). They somehow made it safely to the bottom of the hill.

SUNRISE PARK ON MOUNT RAINIER (1926-29)-Dad worked on the road to Sunrise Park on Mount Rainier. At one point he was supposed to move his rig over a bridge but he judged the bridge to be too dangerous so he refused. His boss told him to move the rig or find a new job. After considering the alternatives he tied some rope to the controls and walked across the bridge. Then, by manipulating the ropes he brought the rig safely across.

Rose Monahan (daughter of Ray Monahan) recalls watching Dad supervise steam shovels on Nachez Pass.

FRED MARRIES

Dad was married on June 1, 1930, at Holy Family Church in Auborn, WA, to our mother, Rose Catherine Monahan (Born: January 12, 1907). George Monahan (Rose's brother) and Wilhelmina Gross (Rose's friend from school) were their witnesses.

CONSTRUCTION WORK

There followed four years on various construction jobs in Washington and Oregon.

WEST SEATTLE RESERVOIR (1931)-Digging a reservoir in West Seattle during the Great Depression, his boss came to him and said that another man wanted his job and would work for less money. Dad's choice was to take a pay cut or lose his job, so he quit. Mother was rather upset until he got a new job at Grand Coulee Dam. (Date doesn't jibe)

FIRST SON

Fredrick Joseph Schlotfeldt, Jr. was born on May 21, 1931, Auborn, WA.

JOHN DAY (1933)-Mom describes John Day home as a tent with a wood floor. The camp site was outside Pilot Rock, OR. She also tells the story of the cattle drive that went through "camp". Fred, Jr. and another boy were playing outside the tents when Mom and the other ladies saw the cattle coming. They grabbed the boys and went into the tens. The cattle split and went around both sides of the tent. As a young adult Fred, Jr. visited the camp area with some friends and when he went home told Mom and Dad about this really beautiful place they had visited and the eerie feeling he had that he had been there before. It was a source of great amusement to both of them since this was where the construction camp was located.

The meat staple at the camp was venison. As was the custom then, the men hunted and killed as needed. The game warden knew of the practice and allowed it except for one man in the camp who killed more than he needed. He was in trouble. Dad also told of trading empty whiskey barrels bought in Pendleton to the Indians for venison. The Indians used them to collect rain water and store their water.

LOGGING RAILROAD-Dad and Uncle Dud were building a logging railroad at Aberdeen, Washington, when someone brought urgent warning that there was a forest fire. Rather than abandon his rig, Dad took it down through the woods, using the bucket as a brake. When they reached the waiting train they found everyone in a hurry to leave for fear of dying in the fire. Dad ran his rig up onto a flatbed and the train immediately started down the track. Normally he would turn the boom around and set it down, then block the rig's one track which had no brake. But since the crew was in such a rush he had to just stay in his seat and put the rig in gear on the turns to keep it in place.

COLUMBIA RIVER HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION-He operated a shovel during construction of tunnels on the highway along the north side of the Columbia River near Lyle, WA. Powder monkeys would drill and set dynamite. After dynamite was exploded in the tunnels, Dad cleared the debris with a tractor shovel. He watched carefully for any unexploded sticks of dynamite. Dad would get terrible headaches from the powder from the explosives. Mom, Dad and Fred, Jr. lived in an hotel in Bingen.

MUD MOUNTAIN (1939-41)-When Dad went to Mud Mountain (near Buckley) he was promised the job of Mechanic Foreman on the day shift. He had not solicited the job, they came looking for him. Instead he was placed on night shift which did not make him happy. Somehow along the way, he broke his toe and proceeded to do his work on crutches. Fred, Jr. remembers him coming home one morning with a deer that he had shot on the way home from Mud Mountain. Cast and all he had shot it, dressed it down, loaded it in (? on) the car, and brought the deer home. It must have been quite a sight.

Dad told Rich that once when he was checking around the job site by himself (one of his many after-hour look-things-over) he started up a stairway which was new and unfinished built up against the canyon wall. When he was halfway up, the stairs started to slip. He managed to get back down safely. No warning had been posted. Mother remembers this as a most miserable job because it rained constantly. They lived in Enumclaw in a white Cape Cod house on Lincoln Street.

Fred, Jr. recalls that the next door neighbors, the Bruns, raised rabbits, and they gave him the start of his own "rabbit family".

COULEE DAM

Dad went to the Grand Coulee in January of 1934, part of the first crew that went in to prepare for the workers to follow. He ran shovel on the road construction down to the dam site on the lower level. When you look at the dam think of all the men coming there before there was ANYTHING and preparing the site for the work to begin. This was the first work on the dam before the Federal Government took over.

When the family joined Dad they lived at Grand Coulee in a traditional tent city with wood floors. The steamer trunk with drawers was used for their clothing.

After the roadway was completed Dad worked on the west side on the foundation of the dam.

LAYOUT OF THE AREA (See map)

Electric City is to the west of Coulee Dam, on the bluff, and Coulee City is on the top of the hill. There is a decided coolness between the towns, a left over from the early days--interesting how long it takes for old frictions to die.

Coulee Dam is on the lower level (LEFT or SOUTH SIDE as one comes down the hill from Coulee City) of the Dam, and was called the Army Engineer's Town. The houses were considerably better.

Mason City, was on the lower level (RIGHT or NORTH SIDE) of the Dam, and was home to the many contractors and workers.

The visitor center has LOTS of neat pictures. If it is open there are MANY pictures in the basement of city hall. Nothing is organized but the pictures give a wonderful feel for what life was like then. A light show at the dam is shown as soon as it is dark.

Fred, Jr. says the family lived in four different houses. He recalls that two of their homes were located on corner lots. Once they lived in the middle of the block while waiting for a corner house. Another time they lived in a duplex. Homes on corner lots were considered status symbols and were usually occupied by the foreman.

CHILDREN BORN DURING THESE YEARS-Mary Eleanor Schlotfeldt was born on February 8 1935, Mason City, WA. Robert Allen Schlotfeldt was born on April 21 1937, Spokane, Washington.

Fred, Jr. recalls that George Flagel lived behind them. He wasn't supposed to climb over the fence, but he often did and they would find him in their living room reading the newspaper in the morning. After repeatedly telling the boy not to come over the fence and into the house, Dad yelled at him to go home-he did-and he was in such a hurry that when he scurried over the fence he tumbled and was caught upside down on the pickets. For some reason he quit these early morning visits.

There was a little grade school for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Mason City. The school across the river in the Army Engineer's Town housed 4th through 12th grades. It was run like a prep school with marches, exercises, and strong discipline.

Father Farley was the pastor of our church and taught the catechism classes. Mary remembers sitting on the floor at his knee. She also remembers the morning he showed up and she was eating COLD spinach from the night before.

The local firemen froze the tennis courts in the winter for ice skating and provided hot chocolate for the skaters to enjoy while gathered around their wood stove. The old fire station is gone-the old church is gone-and we are left with only the memories.

Dad was at Coulee Dam for eight years, until February of 1942. He performed a variety of jobs and worked for several of the sub-contractors. In addition he was sent elsewhere several times after the start of World War II to supervise equipment installations such as Oregon Ship at Swan Island in Portland.

Rich recalls that Dad said that at Grand Coulee, he found that hydraulic equipment had more failures than he liked; so he rigged a filter device in the hydraulic lines. This worked so well that the manufacturer later sent someone out to see what they were doing.

One day another supervisor assigned a guy to operate a rig in a high and dangerous place. Dad said the guy was a good operator but got nervous in places like that. Dad spoke to the supervisor who rejected Dad's advice. The operator panicked and took his rig over the cliff. Mom said that they were sitting in their yard watching when it went over.

This was characteristic of Dad; never demand that anyone do something they are not comfortable doing.

RESPECT-It didn't matter whether the guy was a janitor or an electrician. If the guy would do his part he got the same respect as anyone else. Drunks were a different matter.

Another time a rig malfunctioned at Coulee Dam and the operator couldn't stop it from traveling toward the edge. He jumped off. Dad recognized the problem, ran to the rig, got on, and turned it around. He injured his knee when he jumped off the rig.

At Grand Coulee Dam they worked all three shifts, around the clock. Dad was maintenance supervisor for one of the three shifts. Even though they worked all three shifts on a difficult project, the men never worked overtime, Dad said, except at the end of the project. Congress was considering legislation which would prohibit the export of steel to Japan because of growing hostility. So to beat the clock they were required to work overtime gathering up the scrap to ship overseas. He was always a bit upset about that.

OKANAGON

Dad, Father Farley and Fred, Jr. hunted and fished in the area--Blue Lake, warm water fish--Dry Falls, petrified forest, walk it--Steamboat {expand on this section}

They became friends with a sheepherder at Goose Lake. Fred, Jr. remembers Dad putting out wood decoys and sharing biscuits with the sheepherder.

Dad, Father Farley and Fred, Jr. were goose hunting at Goose Lake the day the war broke out. This was their last visit to the lake. Fred, Jr. remembers Dad picking up a soldier (navigator) who was visiting his parents and taking him to the junction above Coulee City so he could get to Spokane to catch a plane to take him to Fairchild to report for duty. If he didn't make it in time they would leave without him. He remembers how traumatic it was-their first news of the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Father blessed the navigator after they found transport for him at the junction.

(The Okanagon County Historical Society, Okanogan, WA has a lot of printed material and photos available).

See work record

See article on Coulee Dam

See article on the shipyards

KAISER AND VANCOUVER, WA

In February of 1942 Dad was sent by Kaiser Company to Vancouver, Washington. He was one of the first people sent there, before the public knew there was going to be a shipyard. He was told to report to the Evergreen Hotel in Vancouver and wait for orders.

PERMANENCE-One of the first things he did was buy the house in which we grew up for the grand total of $5000. Mother did not see the house until later. Shortly after she arrived, the Realtor informed them that the sale could not go through. Leave it to Mother-she discovered that the reason it couldn't go through was due to the much higher price it would bring now that word of the shipyard was out. Mother went to the Realtor and threatened exposure and, guess what, he backed down and we kept the house-for the next 50 years.

SCHOOL

When the family moved to Vancouver, Fred, Jr. was in the fifth grade and Mary in the first grade. Lincoln School was just across the street from their house. When there was room available they transferred to Providence Academy. The NEW Lincoln School, completed in 1996, completely changes the view from our old home.

ANOTHER SON-Richard Daniel Schlotfeldt born December 20, 1942, Vancouver, Washington.

THE SHIPYARD

Dad was in charge of repair and maintenance at the shipyard where a shortage of needed materials sometimes taxed his ingenuity. For example, the brass needed for cutting tips for the cutting torches was in short supply because most of the available brass was used for ammunition. Faced with this crisis, Dad devised a method for re-cycling worn-out cutting tips. He plugged the hole in a tip with the appropriate size of piano wire, squeezed the tip tightly in a dye Then he turned the tip in a lathe if necessary. Finally, he would pull the wire out and use a small hand-drill to remove burrs It worked so well that the steelworkers preferred the re-worked cutting tips over new ones. Dad had a crew of women to perform this work at the shipyard and also had a business on the side, doing it in our garage for the railroad with the help of Fred, Jr.

Launching ships was a really labor intensive activity. A large team of men spent many hours pounding with sledgehammers on the wooden blocks under the ship. This would lift the ship slightly in preparation for launch. Dad scrounged around and found what he needed to build some air hammers mounted on tracks. This was a major innovation which made the launching much faster and more efficient. (See article).

The government wanted to build ships faster so Kaiser tried an experiment. They built the superstructure of a ship separate from the hull. The idea was to build the two parts in parallel and then pick up the superstructure with a couple big whirley cranes and put it on the hull. When the time came to lift the superstructure, Dad looked it over and decided that the rigging was wrong. He spoke to the guy who was responsible for that work and told him that if one crane got a little bit ahead of the other, they would lose it. The guy didn't listen. Well, they dropped it. The government investigated but could not figure out what had gone wrong so they never tried it again.

Dad did not tell the government people what he knew. He respected the guy who messed up and would not betray him.

That winter a storm dumped a lot of heavy, wet snow. One day Dad walked past the desk of the guy who had dropped the superstructure and muttered to himself "I wonder how much weight the roofs can support." He used to laugh about how he had never seen anyone move so fast as that guy going out to get a crew shoveling the roofs.

Some of the guys were not producing and Dad figured they were just not working. But whenever he was in the yard they were always hard at work. He finally decided that the guard must be telling them whenever he entered the yard, so he let himself in at a locked gate where there was no guard. The guys were nowhere to be seen, so he climbed up the to cab of a whirley crane and as he approached the cab he heard someone say "jiggers!" There they were, playing cards.

On October 4, 1944, Mother christened the U.S.S. Magoffin. There are wonderful pictures celebrating the completion of another ship.

One time I asked Dad how many people worked for him at the shipyard. I was surprised when he actually gave me a number and even more surprised that it was so large as 1100.

KELSO. WA

After the War, our parents wanted to stay in the Vancouver area to raise their family rather than continue following the jobs as they had done previously. Kaiser wanted Dad to stay with the company, moving either to another construction project or into automobile manufacturing. He was told there would always be a job for him at Kaiser. Instead, Dad purchased a sand and gravel company in Kelso, Washington with another man. Fred, Jr remembers exactly the equipment: one TO4 Cat, one TO18 Cat, three IHC Roces Dumper Dicsse, one 54B shovel, one 10B shovel, one other shovel, one crane, one White diesel tractor, one Double Drop Eyuerhut Trailer, one 1939 Chevrolet van. After a year Dad sold out to his partner after some serious disagreements and the family returned to their Vancouver home while he looked for other work.

ROSS ISLAND SAND AND GRAVEL

Dad joined Ross Island Sand and Gravel in Portland, Oregon. A key negotiating point when he joined Ross Island was the pickup. Dad was ready to drive away when Muirhead came over and told him that he could use the pickup like it was his own. The pickup became a part of our family life, something we always associated with our father. Dad without his red GMC pickup was unimaginable.

He started as Superintendent and stayed there until his retirement at age 72 (?). Ross Island was a small company with only six trucks but grew over the years so that today Ross Island and Willamette are the largest sand and gravel businesses in Portland.

One evening Rich found Dad in the basement, standing at his workbench, typing. He was working out an organization chart for Ross Island, identifying the areas of responsibility for each supervisor. Things had apparently been somewhat ill-defined until then.

In the early years, Ross Island sponsored a picnic for all employees. Picnic fare, baseball, and lots of visiting was the order of the day.

We all grew up listening to talk about gob-hoppers and A-engines between our father and our oldest brother. The A-engines (auxiliary engines for turning the barrels of concrete mixer trucks) went away after Dad made some rough sketches and had a device fabricated which would take power from the truck's main engine. This configuration is now standard for all mixer trucks. We don't know whether this was a totally new invention or not, but he had to be one of the first doing it because he was retro-fitting even new trucks.

Dad had a very regular work routine at Ross Island. He went to bed every night at 9:30 and was up at 5:30. After breakfast, (he always left a pot of oatmeal mush prepared for the rest of us), he drove to the Vanport Plant, then Albina, then Boise. At each he would check and see how things were going. If there was a problem which required his attention, Dad would take care of it; then on to the next location. It was generally the middle of the morning by the time he finished his rounds and got into his office. The problems he had to take care of were always the sticky wickets-the things no one else could figure out.

Rich particularly remembers one time when the Willamette River was rising and an important pump under a dock on the Island was going to get flooded. This pump was totally inaccessible and there seemed to be no way to reach it. It had to be raised up higher but there was just no way. Dad just took one look at the problem and then looked up to get the attention of the operator of a whirley crane. The pump was hanging from a bolt which went through the surface of the dock so he removed a board from the dock and attached the crane to the cable. Problem solved, on to the next one.

One night Dad went over to check on the pre-stress operation. He was tinkering with the steam generator (Rich was always scared around that noisy thing--it always seemed like it was about to explode) when someone spoke from behind. "Got a light?" Dad replied without turning around, "No, you will have to go up to the shop." From the darkness came the final words, "Naw, that's too far."

The Vanport flood changed our lives for a while. Dad had to drive up to the Bonneville Locks to get across to Oregon and work. Eventually Ross Island provided a barge to move the men between the Washington and Oregon river banks. (See Vanport story).

Rich remembers going to the Vancouver train station to meet Dad.

Sometimes he would need to get something so Rich and his father would go to one business place or another. There would be a sign saying "Keep out, employees only" but they would walk right in as though the sign was not for them. Someone would turn around and call, "Hello, Fred, what can I do for you?" Dad would describe the widget and make some crude sketch. "No problem, Fred, how soon do you need it?"

One morning-at the truck shop at the Albina plant, the men were heating rivets to extend the frames on M5-H6 marine cure surplus trucks, used for mixers and dumps. Dad stopped to watch one of his mechanics use a heating torch to heat rivets to glove the frame on a M5H6 IHC 6x6 military truck. He was watching from behind when the fellow became aware of his presence. The fellow turned suddenly in surprise and caught Dad in the face with the heating torch. Dad was hospitalized. Mother tells of going to the hospital and being told Dad was in a certain bed. When she found the bed she felt absolutely cold inside, this couldn't be her husband. It wasn't. Wrong bed, wrong man. When she found Dad his face was completely wrapped with bandages. Dad recovered completely and had no scars.

Dad's struggle with Hodgkin's disease began in the spring of 1967. The company gave him the time off he needed on the days he had treatments and Fred, Jr. took over many of the duties of superintendent. At that time Hodgkin's disease was considered incurable and invariably fatal. Dad insisted that his illness be kept strictly secret because he was "not ready to walk the plank". His doctor, however, promised Dad that he would be one of the success stories which would establish Hodgkin's as a curable disease. He kept his promise.

Rich recalls going with Dad to a job site late in his career, when he was over 70 years old and had recovered from Hodgkin's disease. They were just starting construction of a temporary batch plant in the Rivergate area of Portland, and the whole area was still in its natural state. Dad was going to barge the aggregate to the site and batch it there. He wanted to make sure the ground was firm at the spot where he was going to put the portable batch plant, so he had a laborer digging a hole in the ground. After a while the guy got tired, so he crawled up out of the hole to take a breather. Dad took the shovel from him and started digging. After a few minutes my brother, Fred, told one of the other guys to take the shovel away from him, he is getting tired. That was Dad's spirit and his work style: just get in there and do the job.

HOME LIFE/RECREATION

Our family life was very simple. We raised much of our own fruit and vegetables. We were all expected to help Dad with the garden, and it usually turned out to be more fun than work. Dad was a great teacher. When the work was done we could go fishing.

In the spring we could always count on at least one smelt trip, usually to the Sandy River east of Portland, and in the summer we always enjoyed several trips to the woods to pick huckleberries and blackberries. Dad always seemed to know just where to go for the best picking. He could spot a blackberry from 50 yards while driving down the road.

Once when we reached our destination-East of Cougar,WA on the Lewis River, Dad got out of the car-smelled the dry crackling woods-and quickly backtracked us out of the area. It was another of his strengths-don't take unnecessary chances. We were on a dirt fire trail, soon to become a logging road and later the highway east of Cougar.

HUNTING and FISHING-Dad and the boys used to take the boat down Lake River from Richfield. One time when Rich was with him they went out into the Columbia and were surprised by huge waves from a passing ship. The lava beds are now covered with water.

Another time, fishing at the head of Yale Reservoir, we overstayed the weather and had a very scary trip back to the landing. Whitey (an old fisherman who lived by himself near the landing) was there waiting for us. Lake Merwin was another of Dad's favorite fishing spots. The wind comes up on the lakes in the afternoon and sometimes makes the water too rough to fish.

Mary always felt left out of the fishing trips. Mom's explanation that it was easier if "it was just the boys" didn't set too well.

On our one REAL vacation as a family, (the get away from home kind), Dad took us to San Francisco and to several of the California missions. It was a trip to remember.

RETIREMENT

When Dad retired, the company gave him the usual kinds of things one receives upon retirement-XXXX

It was the shot gun with a special scope that the men in the shop gave him that really moved him. It was indicative of the high regard in which they held him.

After his retirement Rich recalls Dad talking to his brother Fred about how to remove the tram (buckets on a cable) which had been used for many years to carry aggregate from the Island to the mainland. This tram was high in the air and probably half a mile or even three quarters of a mile long. I have no idea how this impossible task was to be performed but I do recall his warning that the power company must be notified and one of their people must be on-site to ensure that the high-voltage power lines under the tram would be shut off. That was just a precaution, because the plan did not require laying the tram down on the power lines.

When he was older, he started driving his pickup a little bit too close to the edge of the pavement when going around curves. This caused me considerable concern and I warned him a number of times. Finally, one day, I realized what was really going on. I said to him calmly, "Now I know: you are just testing yourself, to see how close you can take it." He just laughed and from then on I just relaxed.

On the morning of his departure for Minneapolis and Richard's home in June of 1982, he took time to stop by the Ross Island and share with Fred, Jr. his solution for a long standing problem. As always, he was excited with finding a solution.

MEMORIES

RELIGION-Dad's faith was a constant in his life. Besides providing Catholic schooling for his children. He was a living example of what a Christian should be. He never asked of others what he was not willing to give himself. It was a common sight to see Dad kneel in church and pull out his rosary. A traditionalist in his beliefs, change was not always easy for him to accept.

Once we got up in the morning to deep snow and no Dad. Mother said she awakened to find him dressing in the middle of the night. He would only say he didn't know why but he had to go to work. Later we learned that when he went to Ross Island he found a blind man huddled by the office door. He had lost his way in the snow and the police said he would have been dead shortly if Dad had not found him and called for help.

He was a man who listened to the spirit within.

TOUGH NEGOTIATOR-Dad was a tough negotiator. Many times we saw him walk away from car salesmen who would not give him the deal he wanted.

VIEWS ON EDUCATION-Dad considered education extremely important and wanted to give his children what he had been unable to get. All of his children graduated from college and went on to work towards advanced degrees.

Mom's brother, Ray, once told Rich that his father had done very well for a guy with only a second grade education. Mother indignantly dismissed this report as incorrect. Actually his formal education ended with the eighth grade. Whenever Rich asked him what school he attended, he would laugh and say "the school of hard knocks".

TEACHER-What a teacher he was. Always he taught us how to tackle something new and not to be afraid. Mary recalls the time he took the broken door lock out of the Chrysler and put the pieces of it on the table and instructed her how to repair it. And guess what-it worked!

When we had trouble with math-Dad could straighten us out and get us back on the right track.

When Dad died, men who had known him at work spoke of him at the weekly Ross Island meeting being held and one said-the marvel was not so much that he was so good at whatever he did, but that he was able to pass his tremendous knowledge and skills on to his son, Fred. We all feel this way.

RARELY DISCUSSED THE PAST-Like a soldier who never discussed the war, Dad never talked about his youth. Uncle Dud talked openly about work experiences but also never spoke in our presence about his youth. Dad seemed to enjoy the stories

An exception: Dad said that he and (one or more of his brothers?) saw how Indians trapped fish and decided they could do it too. They built a trap in Boise Creek at the farm in Enumclaw and went to the house with gunny sacks of fish. Their father was not pleased with their project and made them remove the trap.

He also spoke of breaking horses by tying an unbroken horse to another horse which was well-behaved. He hated farm-work and was allergic to hay.

KNOWLEDGE OF GERMAN-Dad had no knowledge of German beyond his strongest expletive "Heraus mit ihm" or "'raus mit ihm". (It took me many years to figure out what he was saying, and I'm still not sure I have it exactly right -- sounded like "rauschmitm"). So far as I know, none of his siblings retained a knowledge of German either. Dad said his father spoke German and could also communicate with various Scandinavians, though he did not really speak any Scandinavian languages.

DAD WAS A PROBLEM SOLVER-Dad feared nothing but took no unnecessary risks. He was a self- taught engineer, quietly confident of his ability to solve just about any problem.

Mary recalls the frustration of using a new sewing machine, her 16th birthday present. The thread kept breaking. A formal needed sewing and Mary was getting thoroughly disgusted when Dad arrived home. Taking in the situation he took the sewing manual, read it, and calmly re-threaded the machine-CORRECTLY.

A MAN OF HONOR-His word was his bond.

FEARLESS-He was absolutely fearless but never took unnecessary risks. He even cautioned Rich against riding ski lifts. He said that they are just like the tram at Ross Island and buckets (chairs) can fall off.

Very late in his career, working high up on the boom of a whirley crane (the cab is at 75 feet) he slipped. He caught himself with one hand; otherwise he would have fallen. He didn't tell mother. I believe this was the closest call of his entire career.

There was only one kind of construction equipment he wouldn't touch; the kind of crane that is used on top of new buildings and goes up higher with the building. He regarded those as death-traps, inherently unstable. He told of a fellow he knew who operated them for many years. The fellow taught his son how to operate them as well, but his son had an accident with one and was killed.

RESPONSIBILITY-Our house always looked well cared for. Just like clock work, every summer, Dad sanded and painted one side of the house.

Dad never ceased taking caring of his family, whether it be brothers and sisters, children, or grandchildren.

One of Mary's funniest memories of her Dad is the summer he was helping them repair the plumbing in the bathroom at the Jefferson farm. Everything was progressing well until suddenly some really BLUE language hit the air waves. There was Dad, crouched half in the sink cabinet, trying to hold the pipes together while hot water spewed all over him and the floor, and, in between some very explosive language, yelling for someone to turn off the water. To this days Mary laugh's-it was the first time she had ever heard him use such language. But that was Dad, he was always an example for what he expected of us.

GRANDFATHER-He passed on to his grandchildren the same love of nature he possessed.

XXX Mike-tractor/water cask XXX Garden XXX Driving kids to swim meet/slow driving XXX

{We need comments from grandchildren}

CONTACTS WITH RELATIVES-We cannot recall any contact between my parents and dad's aunts and uncles. We occasionally saw Freida (Portland) Mary's (Ernie's wife's) sister.

Maybe once a year we went "east of the mountains" to visit Catherine, Ernie and Dud. Leo came to Vancouver occasionally and encouraged Dad to visit Alaska. Dad said he didn't go because Mom didn't want him to. Dud was often in Vancouver purchasing equipment so we saw more of him than Dad's other brothers and sisters.

During the summer before he started working at Ross Island Dad and Fred, Jr. visited his sister, Catherine on the farm at Toppenish. They always had chickens running free in the orchard and Catherine's husband, Jack Blair, told Dad to take some. So they shot about 25 chickens and worked until midnight cleaning them.

Fred, Jr recalls working one summer for the Gamaches in the hop fields and grapes.

DEATH

Dad died on July 22, 1982, at the home of his daughter, Mary, in Jefferson, Oregon. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery, Vancouver, Washington.

On the way to Mary's home Dad stopped at Ross Island to share some ideas with Fred, Jr. Upon returning to his car, Mother recalls, he said that he had done all he could for Fred.

Mom, Dad, and Mary had just returned from a trip to Minnesota visiting Dick and his family which included Nathan and the new twins, Michael and David. One of our last special pictures of him is gently reaching for the finger of one of the twins.