Carl Edward Carlson passed away quietly at his home in Hoquiam on July 6, 2020, at the age of 94. Known to friends as “Slim” but to those that loved him most as “PAPA,” his family will miss his quiet presence.

His family relocated from Michigan to Hoquiam, Washington, when he was very young. After graduating from Hoquiam High School in June of 1944 he enlisted in the U.S. Army and began his basic training at Camp Roberts in California and from there was sent on a 30-day voyage to the Philippine Islands. He returned stateside in September 1946 aboard the S.S. Sheepshead Bay Victory, which was the same boat that took him to the Philippines.

After returning home he used his G.I. Benefits to buy the fishing boat “Tytto” and fished the coast of Washington and Oregon for many years. During that time, through a cousin, he met his wife Sally Delores Manley and they were married in November of 1953. They purchased a military house from Fort Lewis and had it delivered to a foundation on the property he purchased from his parents in Hoquiam. Over many years he added to and remodeled the house, which was where he lived until the day that he passed.

After he became a family man he started working for the E. C. Miller Cedar Lumber company and became one of only two specialty cedar lumber graders on the west coast of the U.S. After the mill was lost to a fire in 1983, he worked for the Port of Grays Harbor until he “officially” retired in July of 2011. In his spare time he loved working with wood and puttering around his yard. Most days he could be seen riding his bike out to the Hoquiam airport.

He is survived by his wife Sally Carlson of Hoquiam and their daughters Ramona (David) Starr of Colorado and Donna (Laurence deceased 2010) Dixon of Washington; grandchildren Joshua Dixon, Crystal Starr, Dustin Dixon, Adam Starr and Kiana Dixon, and great-grandchildren Ava Starr, Brinley Dixon, Austin Starr, Brady Dixon and many nieces and nephews.

Carl was born June 22, 1926, in Munising, Michigan, to Edward Robert Carlson and Alma Hulda Elizabeth Carlson. The middle of three children, he was preceded in death by his parents and his sister Grace Elizabeth Whitehead Carlson and brother the Rev. Ernest Elmer Carlson.