85 YEARS AGO

June 3, 1940

Captain W.A. Geer, Hoquiam, is the champion trout fisherman of the Pacific Northwest today and has a custom built boat and outboard motor to prove it. Geer won the fifth annual Lake Quinault trout derby yesterday from a record entry of 932, 160 more than competed last year. The derby, most successful in history, was run off under ideal weather conditions with a crowd variously estimated between 5,000 and 10,000 watching from the shore.

June 4, 1940

A verdict Mrs. Laura Law was murdered by “an assailant or assailants unknown to us” put an end today to the twice-recessed, four months old inquest into the slaying January 5 of the wife of Dick Law, Grays Harbor CIO leader. Law, husband of the slain woman, left the city hall without direct comment on the verdict.

June 5, 1940

Dennis Walsh is believed to be the youngest senior ever to graduate at Hoquiam high school, officials said today. He is 14 and will not be 15 until this coming August 14. His mother graduated from high school at the age of 16. She is the former Foulata Dimler, daughter of the late Adam Dimler. Walsh attended St. Mary’s school eight years and has been an honor student four years in high school. He plays the French horn and piano, speaks German and Spanish and is now studying Finnish.

June 6, 1940

Jordan’s Market Center at the corner of Broadway and First in Aberdeen is advertising 2 dozen eggs for 37¢, bananas for 6¢ a pound, 3 heads of lettuce for 10¢, ham for 19 1/2¢ a pound and bacon for 15¢ a pound. Their phone number is Aberdeen 411.

June 7, 1940

While a capacity crowd of 1,500 relatives and friends watched, the Weatherwax high school Class of 1940, 290 strong, was graduated last night at the Miller auditorium. Barbara Joy Hegg, valedictorian, won double honors. She was presented the Madge Finley Memorial journalism award and received the C.M. Weatherwax first prize of $100.

Earl Pettit and Roy Strickler, Queets valley pioneers, went for a leisurely stroll through the bottoms above the Queets Valley M.M. Kelly ranch along with two large collie dogs, Togo and Rusty. At the old Howard place a large cougar jumped out from behind a blackberry thicket. The dogs gave chase. The hikers were unarmed except for Pettit’s hunting knife and a large stone Pettit picked up. The cougar was finally treed and while the dogs fumed around the trunk, Pettit sat down on a soft spot to whittle and wait while Strickler hiked off to the ranch house for a rifle. The cat stretched out on a limb and snarled. Pettit returned with the gun and downed the cougar with a single shot. The big cat measured nine feet, tip to tip.

60 YEARS AGO

June 1, 1965

Helen Kleeb, who is seen as prim Miss Claridge on Channel 11’s “Harrigan and Son” series at 8 p.m. Mondays, began her acting career in the mid-1920s at Aberdeen High School. The South Bend native was a junior when the acting bug bit. She appeared in many AHS dramatic productions and represented her class at the state-wide Shakespearean Festival. She also appeared in motion pictures, including “The Gazebo,” “Friendly Persuasion” and “I Want to Live.”

A large audience Wednesday evening at the Marenko Riding School Gymkhana, enjoyed the initial Showing of Horses, the beauty and exacting riding technique of the precision drill, and they chuckled and shouted encouragement to the participants in the various games, most of them children of varying ages, some in their first year of riding instruction.

June 2, 1965

More than a million clams were dug on Washington’s coastal beaches during the three-day Memorial Day holiday, according to Herb Tegelberg, Fisheries Department biologist at Aberdeen. Tabulators counted 59,000 diggers taking home 940,000 clams. An additional 60,000 clams were figured as wastage.

June 3, 1965

• The Sophisticats, Weatherwax High School stage band directed by Hampton Wines, has accepted an invitation to appear on the “Telescope” TV program at 8 o’clock Tuesday morning. The show is telecast daily in color over KGW-TV, Portland. Harbor viewers may catch the show on Channel 9. Bill Page of the Lawrence Welks Orchestra acclaimed the Sophisticats as one of the finest high school stage bands with which he had worked.

Tuition and fee charges at Washington State University will be increased beginning next fall for both resident and nonresident students. The WSU Board of Regents voted Tuesday to increase total charges to resident students other than those in the College of Veterinary Medicine from $300 to $325 per year. Nonresident tuition and fees will total $825 next fall, up from the present $600.

June 4, 1965

Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced he has recommended the National Football League add two teams for a total of 16 by 1967. Informed of the announcement, Commissioner Joe Foos of the American Football League said the AFL might do it sooner, perhaps putting two new teams on the field by 1966. Rozelle named 12 “major cities which have expressed an interest in an NFL franchise: Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Phoenix, Seattle and Portland.”

June 7, 1965

Clarence Whalawitsa, chief of police of the Quinault Indian Reservation, threatened this week to close public access to Point Grenville after he said, surfing clubs invaded the scenic beach and littered it with the remains of Memorial Day weekend parties. The under-age drinking, disorderly conduct and littering that occurred prompted a representative of the Madison Surf Club of Hoquiam, Michael Wandell, to write, ” … Today the call of the surf has brought more than just surfers such as ourselves, but also, “Ho-Dads” in love with the name and the excitement. The drinkers and partiers are taking over and we want enforcement of state and local laws to help save our beaches.”

35 YEARS AGO

June 2, 1990

Perfection. To others it may sound a bit lofty, but when Aberdeen High School senior Kyung “Mike” Min talks about his future, he matter-of-factly includes “becoming perfect” as a goal. He quickly clarifies he is talking about his definition of perfection, which is under constant revision. The multi-talented 18-year-old has just been accepted into United States Military Academy at West Point. High expectations come naturally for each of the Min children, Mike explained. He and his sister, Sun, 19, who was home from her freshman year at prestigious Columbia University in New York, praised their parents for expecting the most of them, being consistent, teaching discipline and instilling self-worth. Their older sister, Kathy, 21, hopes to become a physician, and is studying pre-med at Boston University.

A 4-year-old girl is perched on the edge of the green “show and tell” bench Wednesday, sharing a carefully-selected treasure with a semicircle of preschoolers sitting with legs crossed on the floor. Mary Beth Morrissey had witnessed similar scenes hundreds of times, but her enthusiasm for the moment rivaled that of the child’s. In her 18 years of teaching at the Central Park Cooperative Preschool, she’s been cherished by the community in part for her ability to look at the world through the wonder of a young child’s eye. But as her 4-year-olds leave preschool this year, so will she. It’s simply time to retire. Though Mrs. Morrissey, 58, will be greatly missed, Melanie Bickar, herself a former director of the parent-run preschool, has been hired to teach next year, said Terri Pearsall, current director of the school.

June 4, 1990

A record number of joggers and walkers brought $60,000 to the finish line Saturday during the fourth annual 24-Hour Run Against Cancer. A total of 807 people participated in the event. Dick Kivi of the AWPPW Local 211 “Striders” raised $4,340 and Bob Glenn, a member of the Lakeside Industries team raised $3,613.

Longshore from Grays Harbor swept a non-league Senior Babe Ruth League twin bill from Kelso Saturday, 8-7 and 7-5. Chris Eisele was the winning pitcher in the first game as Alex Dunsire’s two-run single in the fifth helped the winners overcome a 7-5 deficit. Earlier Rick Curtis had singled home a pair of runs for Longshore. Don Marbut came to the mound with the score 7-5, bases full, no out and the count 3-and-0 – and got out of it without a run being scored.

June 5, 1990

Isabelle Lamb of Hoquiam was one of four Washington executives invited to the Venetian Room of San Francisco’s grand Fairmont Hotel, to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who seems almost single-handedly to be reshaping the world order. Also attending were governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. The atmosphere “was just charged with enthusiasm for this gentleman, for his charisma and for the courage he has shown,” Lamb said. “The importance of the day just wrapped around you.” For lunch, the hotel served lobster salad with curry dressing, rack of lamb and for dessert a white chocolate tulip cup with red stripes filled with fruit and more chocolate.

June 6, 1990

With heavy emphasis in law enforcement management, Detective Sgt. Bob Johnson has become the Aberdeen Police Department’s fourth graduate of the FBI National Academy. “I really enjoyed it,” said Johnson, a 15-year veteran of the department and former supervisor of the multi-agency Grays Harbor Drug Task Force. “Not only the instruction but the classmates from all over the country and other countries.” “The instruction is the most up-to-date, top-notch instruction anywhere,” said Police Chief Bill Ellis, himself a 1976 graduate of the academy. • Driftwood Players held its annual awards banquet Saturday night and honored its top performers as well as many volunteers who helped bring top productions to the Harbor. The oldest of the awards is the Ham of the Year Award, presented to a person who has put that extra effort into their character and makes even a bit part memorable. This year’s recipient in Micki Colwell for her role as Mrs. Bradman in “Blithe Spirit.” Fred Root, Hoquiam businessman, was awarded the Betty Butler Award for being an enthusiastic supporter of the community and the theater. First time actor Jack McPherson won Best Supporting Actor for his role as the sergeant in “Biloxi Blues.”

June 7, 1990

Tyson Godfrey, due to graduate from Aberdeen High School in two days, put his name on a contract to play ball for the Chicago Cubs organization. He had been selected by the National League club Monday in baseball’s free agent draft. Along with his parents, Scott and Sharon Godfrey, were his high school baseball coaches, Ken Waite and Ron Langhans and AHS activities coordinator Dick Dixon. Four years at the University of Washington will be paid for by the Cubs.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom, Editorial Assistant at The Daily World. You can contact her at karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com or call her at 360-537-3925.