75 years ago
July 16, 1944
Sunday, no newspaper published
July 17, 1944
Pfc. Roy Pieruccini, former Aberdeen high school and industrial league baseball player, had to travel thousands of miles before he chanced to meet his brother Private Bruno Pieruccini in New Guinea. Before that he missed reunions with his brother several times once by two days at Camp Roberts, California.
Pieruccini said it was a treat to get the Aberdeen World.
50 years ago
July 16, 1969
Apparent low bidder on the main Wynooche Dam contract was $13,318,001 submitted by the Drave Corp. of Bellevue, 21 per cent higher than the contract estimate drawn up by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The recent delay in bid-calling and the higher-than-expected bids submitted yesterday stirred Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen to comment: “This is the example of the terrible crunch this nation faces. We can provide for wars but not for water in our cities.”
July 17, 1969
Rollin Gordon, longtime Elma logger and plywood producer, bagged a big bear hunting in the North River area Saturday with his two grandsons, Rex and Hal Gordon and Mike and Don Zepp.
The bear, which measured seven feet, six inches tall, will be on display in this weekend’s McCleary Bear Festival parade. Gordon said the bear was approximately 12 years old.
Gordon’s bear is believed to have been successfully stalking a large herd of elk in the North River region.
25 years ago
July 16, 1994
• The Schweitzers’ hill has seen the best of times and the worst of times.
It holds in its history the tale of two cities — the Aberdeen of frontier romance and the Aberdeen of modern expansion. The hill is perhaps better known today as Hospital Hill, so stamped by the monolithic presence of Grays Harbor Community Hospital. But in old-world Aberdeen nothing was quite so profound of an influence on the hill as the Schweitzers, the family that cleared it, claimed in and called it home.
It was “Schweitzer Hill.”
Thanks to action by the Aberdeen City Council, the street where Joe Jr. and Helen Schweitzer still keep their homestead now bears the family name.
• The Great American Herb Co. of Olympia and its sweet smells will soon be waiting in Grays Harbor County.
The company plans to finish construction in its new 34,000-square-foot plant two miles east of Elma in late August. The nine-acre site is at the intersection of Heise Road and State Highway 8.
Stan Lattin, the Economic Development Council’s business director, said the community is welcoming Great American Herb with open arms.
“It represents diversification of the economy,” Lattin said. “We have been heavily dependant on the timber industry forever. If we continue to attract these different kinds of industries, we have a much stabler economic base in the community.”
Other examples of this diversity, Lattin said, are luxury boat builders and a piano manufacturer now operating in the county. “These are all products tied to different economic cycles.”
July 17, 1994
Congresswoman Jolene Unsoeld’s note summed up a hand-clapping, back-slapping affair honoring the nation’s newest marine sanctuary: “No oil development. No gas (development). And no bombs. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Federal, state and tribal officials expressed similar thoughts Saturday in Kalaloch at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary dedication ceremony.
More than 200 people jammed two open-air tents on Beach 6 to hear a slew of speakers heap wave upon wave of praise on the different groups who helped establish the sanctuary.
The nation’s 14th marine sanctuary stretches from Copalis Beach to Cape Flattery. It is twice the size of Yosemite National Park.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
