75 years ago
November 5, 1943
Aberdeen’s enlarged planning committee will be formally organized and will discuss the chamber of commerce-sponsored proposal to create an enlarged park and civic center in the lower business district at a meeting tonight, Josef Zelasko, chairman of the 7-man committee said today.
In addition they will consider Mayor Walter T. Foelkner’s suggestion that the city should take steps to provide an Aberdeen airfield.
50 years ago
November 5, 1968
The Aberdeen World is starting a new once-a-week feature called “Dan D. Tipps,’ the creation of Carl Stamwitz of Aberdeen. The feature deals with simple and clever ways of solving sometimes annoying problems.
Stamwitz was “born and raised” in Cosmopolis, was graduated from the Aberdeen high school and got his “art” training in his youth from a $25 mail-order cartooning course. He served in the military in World War II and after the war spent a year in New York working with Dave Berger on his famous King Feature Berger comic strip. Currently Stamwitz is (as he has been for years) a truck driver for Stouffer company, and for as many years has been doing free-lance cartooning.
25 years ago
November 5, 1993
Two of Aberdeen’s biggest eyesores — the Finch Building and the D&R Theater — have new owners with big plans for improvement.
Pat Brutsche of Kent, owner of Washington Cedar & Supply Co. with two operating shake mills at Humptulips, has purchased the D&R Theater and is a partner in the Finch Building. He said he intends to restore the dilapidated theater’s facade, turn most of the rear of the building into a parking garage and remodel the rest for office and retail space.
Brutsche is one of three in a partnership to buy the Finch. He, Jerry Werre of Aberdeen and Jim Simmons of Olympia have formed Aberdeen Investment Corp.
Werre and Simmons own the Becker Building — another downtown landmark that got a new lease on life when they bought it 2½ years ago and began renovations. In fact, Werre said interest in the Becker Building convinced him there’s a unmet demand on Grays Harbor for good space downtown and that the Finch Building was a feasible undertaking.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
