85 YEARS AGO
January 11, 1941
Major Reuben Fleet, former Montesanan and president now of the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation at San Diego, arrived on the Harbor this afternoon to attend the wedding tonight of his niece, Miss Barbara Bishop, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.K. Bishop.
His visit will be brief as his plant is working on large defense airplane orders both for this country and Great Britain. The plant has been doubled since the defense work started and is now the largest aircraft factory under one roof in the nation. The plant employs about 14,000 men now and when additions are completed, is expected to employ more than 30,000.
January 13, 1941
The Grays Harbor Shipbuilding company of Aberdeen, incorporated Saturday for $100,000, today notified the federal government that it was ready to accept contracts for building small wooden naval vessels of the type required for speed torpedo boats, submarine chasers and minesweepers.
E.W. Lutz, retiring president of the Aberdeen chamber of commerce, announced the shipbuilding program, saying present plans are for building ships of 90 to 135 feet long.
Initial plans call for employment of about 150 men at the outset of operations, these being divided on a three-shift basis.
January 16, 1941
Grays Harbor was assured another new industry today with the signing of a five-year lease for the Process Woods company plant east of Aberdeen on Elliott waterway.
The lessee is the Sliced Woods Products company of Seattle which will produce sliced spruce for defense industry, mostly for plastic airplanes.
The firm plans to employ around 20 to 25 men at the start.
January 17, 1941
The best story of Governor Arthur B. Langlie’s first day as the state’s chief executive leaked out today.
Following the inaugural ball at which he shook hands with a thousand or two persons, the governor slipped out and went back to the gubernatorial mansion. Thinking a few friends might drop in he ordered ice cream and other refreshments. He was amazed when about 150 “dropped in.”
At 2:30 a.m., after the last guests had left, one of the governor’s personal friends discovered him in the kitchen of the mansion, elbow-deep in dishes, cleaning up so the maids would not have so much work the next day.
The storm that raged at a 50-mile-per-hour clip this morning will be but a mild zephyr compared to the casaba cyclone that is due to hit the Hoquiam gymnasium about 8:15 o’clock tonight when Aberdeen and Hoquiam high school quintets renew their annual basketball rivalry. Eighty extra reserved seats were snapped up by yesterday afternoon and Hoquiam officials were planning ways today to get more general admission seats in the gym.
65 YEARS AGO
January 11, 1966
Richard (Dick) Dixon, 32, was named the new vice-principal of Weatherwax High School at last night’s Aberdeen School Board meeting. He succeeds Norman Newman who will become the new principal at Miller Junior High School.
Dixon is a graduate of Moclips High School and Western Washington State College and has been with the district for 7 years. Whether he will continue as head basketball coach next year is still undecided.
January 12, 1966
Local Safeway stores are advertising salmon steaks for 79¢ a pound; ground beef for 39¢ a pound; 2 dozen eggs for 95¢; 10 pounds of sugar for 88¢ and 10 pounds of Sunkist navel oranges for 99¢.
Dick Dixon came back from Kelso with a tingling important 79-75 win over the Scotties, yet elated as he was, he still took time to compliment Coach Royal Johnson’s Highlanders. “They’re the finest team we’ve met this season and it took our best effort to beat ‘em.”
Dixon, who may or may not be coaching the ‘Cats next year since he has been named vice-principal of the high school, feels four teams, Olympia, Kelso, Centralia and Aberdeen are very evenly matched in the Northern Division race. Kelso and Aberdeen both sport 8-2 season records, Centralia is 8-1.
January 13, 1966
Richard Sowre, 23, a logger employed by the Weyerhaeuser Co. was fatally injured yesterday afternoon while at work at a company operation at Seal Slough, near Nemah. The power saw operator was struck in the back by a windfall tree and died at the scene.
The Council of Girls at Weatherwax High School named Ann Mackey as December Girl-of-the-Month. She was awarded a C.O.G. medallion by President Mary Tesia.
Ann is a senior at Weatherwax where her classes include home economics, English, Spanish, psychology and typing. Attending football and basketball games are her favorite pastimes.
January 17, 1966
Three trucks hauled 14 more old car bodies from the Raymond and South Bend area Sunday to North Cove to aid in the anti-erosion project. Added to the 19 hauled the week before, 33 derelict cars have now been sent down to the site from the Willapa area.
35 YEARS AGO
January 11, 1991
When Tam Dixon attended Aberdeen High School, she’d never even heard of Botswana and certainly couldn’t locate it on a map. But this week the 1983 graduate was at her alma mater regaling students with stories of her life in the undeveloped country in the southern part of Africa.
The vivacious daughter of teacher Marlene Dixon and County Commissioner Dick Dixon showed slides and told stories of her work in the Peace Corps teaching English to junior high aged students at Itekeng Secondary School in Ghanzi.
Trailing by 30-20 at halftime, Wishkah’s Loggerettes rallied in the second half to overhaul Naselle, 47-45, in a key Pacific League girls basketball game last night at Wishkah.
Two free throws by Shannon Taylor snapped a 45-45 tie with 11 seconds remaining and gave Wishkah the victory.
Molly McDougall, a niece of Loggerette coach Rick McDougall, led her team with 22 points and 12 rebounds.
January 12, 1991
Rose Willmore recently tied gold ribbons to trees outside her east Aberdeen apartment in honor of her pen pal, Navy petty officer John Barrett of North Carolina, who left for Saudi Arabia Monday. Though the two have never met, they have been pen pals for three years. “I know what it’s like to be thousands of miles from home,” said Willmore, who served a brief stint in the Air Force. “It’s lonely. You miss everything that’s familiar; like the room you grew up in and the faces, you saw everyday — things you took for granted.”
Willmore said she and her neighbors will continue writing letters to American troops and tying ribbons to trees throughout the Persian Gulf crisis.
January 13, 1991
Aboard a U.S. Navy missile cruiser in the Persian Gulf, Wayne Bromley’s son is on the front lines of Operation Desert Shield.
And if the elder Bromley could have it his way, he’d be right there with him. “I’m 56 years old and if I could get back in (the Navy) I’d go over too,” Bromley said Saturday from a bar stool at the 40 et 8 Club in Aberdeen. “I feel it’s time to stop that guy. I think (Saddam Hussein) sort of wants to be the King of Arabia.”
Although half-a-world away, the Persian Gulf was a hot topic this weekend on Grays Harbor. Television sets in taverns and bars across the Harbor switched from the NFL playoffs to news channels Saturday as word of Congress’ approval of war resolutions filtered down.
Most everyone said that if it comes to battle, the United States should use every conventional advantage of its technological superiority in hopes that fewer American lives would be lost.
Among those wondering whether war is the best course is Beck Pellegrini, 16 and a sophomore at Hoquiam High School.
“I don’t think we should go to war, myself,” Pellegrini said. “I’ve got a cousin over there and there’s thousands of Americans.”
“Put Bush over there,” he said. “If Bush was over there … on the lines, would he want war?”
January 16, 1991
The Daily World published an 8-page “Extra” edition with the headline “U.S. attacks Iraq.” That was the first “Extra” edition in nearly 46 years — Aug. 14, 1945 — as Japan surrendered to end World War II.
William F. Bohrnsen, Hoquiam’s superintendent of schools for 25 years until he retired in 1974, died Tuesday. He was 81 and had lived in a retirement home for the past five years.
“He was such a friendly, dedicated person,” said Omar Parker, who served on the school board for 16 years while Bohrnsen was superintendent.
In a strongly worded letter to its 270 striking mill workers in Hoquiam, ITT Rayonier has issued an ultimatum: Agree to our terms or find a new job.
Union officials called the letter “intimidating and threatening,” but have yet to announce their next move. The AWPPW has been on strike since Aug. 26.
Don Marbut scored time and again on darting, weaving drives up the middle of the Tumwater defense last night at Sam Benn Gym as the Bobcats marched to a 67-56 victory. He mixed in a handful of fast break buckets as he connected on 11 of 14 shots from the field and 7 of 10 foul shots.
The 5-11 junior was the only Bobcat to score in double digits but he shared coach Randy Hancock’s post-game laurels with a couple of other teammates. “Ryan Mohs and Cory Erickson both played close to their best games, too,” Hancock pointed out.
January 17, 1991
Wednesday was the first day of classes at the new North Beach Junior-Senior High School in Oyehut. More than 100 students from the middle school at Ocean City and another 200 from the old high school at Moclips spent the day adjusting to their sparkling new building.
“You don’t know how happy we are to be here,” an ecstatic High School Principal Tony Pasckvale said early yesterday afternoon.
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.
