Hugh Klopfenstein, 67, Executive Of Seattle-Based Clothing Chain

Maybe it was the example of another polio victim, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who inspired Hugh Klopfenstein to put aside his own misfortune.

Whatever the reason, ``he never complained . . . he was a tremendous scrapper,'' reminisced Dr. Karl Klopfenstein, a brother of the chairman and chief operating officer of the Seattle-based Klopfenstein clothing chain.

Mr. Klopfenstein, 67, died Sunday at his home in Seattle after a long struggle with cancer.

But even during his illness, Mr. Klopfenstein joked, worked and played golf whenever he could, friends and family members said.

``He knew how to live and he knew how to die,'' observed Joe Mijich, attorney and longtime friend.

Memorial services will be held at 1 p.m. Friday in University Presbyterian Church, 4540 15th Ave. N.E. Cremation will be under the direction of Bonney-Watson.

A son of the late Clarence F. Klopfenstein Sr., founder of the men's clothing stores, Mr. Klopfenstein graduated from Garfield High School in 1940 and was attending the Devitt School, a Washington, D.C., preparatory institution, when he was appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1942.

But in the fall of 1944, Mr. Klopfenstein was stricken with polio. He became a patient at Warm Springs, Ga., a favorite retreat of FDR, and was thumbing a ride in uniform to a nearby town when the presidential cavalcade came by.

``You can imagine my surprise,'' he wrote his mother shortly after Mr. Roosevelt's death, ``when I saw the President in the car I was trying to hitch a ride from.

``. . . I was so embarrassed that I tried to salute the President with the hand that held my cane. It must have been quite funny, for the President, when he passed, was laughing and waving his hat at me.''

The letter was reported in the April 19, 1945, editions of The Seattle Daily Times. Roosevelt died April 12.

Because of polio, Mr. Klopfenstein limped on his right leg, said his former wife, A.J. ``Alice'' Klopfenstein. ``He had to run flatfooted,'' she said. ``But he persevered. He played tennis, anyway, and laughed about it.''

After graduating from Stanford University in the late 1940s, Mr. Klopfenstein joined the family business, which was one of the first downtown stores to expand into shopping centers. Klopfenstein's now includes 14 stores in Washington, Oregon and Alaska as a division of Hartmarx Specialty Stores.

A patron of the Seattle Repertory Theater, Mr. Klopfenstein helped organize fund-raising galas, for which his firm partly defrayed the costs. He also sponsored an acting scholarship for college students in Washington and Oregon.

An avid sailer and member of the Seattle Yacht Club, Mr. Klopfenstein also was a partner in owning a floating bar, The S.S. Boat, on Lake Washington.

``It was a raft with bar stools and umbrella tables,'' said a daughter, Kris Klopfenstein of Seattle. ``I remember one time we were out on it, and they forgot to bolt the (outboard) motor on the raft. Everybody was stuck in the middle of the lake.'' A child at the time, she doesn't recall how they were rescued.

Mr. Klopfenstein also was a member of the University Club, the Seattle Rotary Club, the Seattle Golf Club, served two terms as president of the Seattle Tennis Club and was a founder and president of the Northwest Forum, a businessmen's social group.

Another tragedy struck the family when a son, Hugh Klopfenstein Jr., a former Pac-8 football lineman of the week at Washington State University, died of cancer in 1980, at the age of 31.

Besides Dr. Klopfenstein, he is survived by another brother, Clarence Klopfenstein of Redmond. Also, besides daughter Kris Klopfenstein, there are two other daughters, Katie Hanson of Seattle and Kyle Brace of Santa Barbara, Calif., and two grandchildren.

The family suggests remembrances to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1124 Columbia St., Seattle 98104; Cancer Lifeline, 107 Cherry St., No. 500, Seattle 98104, or to the Seattle Repertory Theater, 155 Mercer St., Seattle 98109.