Samuel Wilcox Bargreen, Caring Employer And Strong Family Man

Samuel Wilcox Bargreen, an Everett businessman who owned a beer distributorship and restaurant-equipment supply company, died of cancer in Seattle Friday. He was 58.

Friends and family remember Mr. Bargreen as a caring employer, a loving father and a doting grandfather.

"All his employees loved him," said Hugh Stanley, who has been a friend and employee of Mr. Bargreen for 30 years.

"He was very generous," Stanley recalled. "If he was happy with your work, he would give you a raise or say, `Take a few weeks off and go down to Lake Tahoe with my wife and me.' "

After graduating from the University of Washington in 1957, Mr. Bargreen immediately worked in his family businesses, owned by his father, former Washington state Sen. Howard Bargreen.

Samuel Bargreen first managed the Selah branch of the Bargreen's Restaurant Equipment Co. and later became president of its three branches in Seattle, Everett and Mount Vernon.

He sold part of the company in the 1980s and joined Crown Distribution Co., a beer distributorship that his father established in the 1930s. For the past 12 years, he was president of the company's Everett branch and secretary of its Aberdeen branch.

Mr. Bargreen was a workaholic, said his brother-in-law Rod Parsons.

"He couldn't sit still," he said. "If he had free time, he'd do something."

Mr. Bargreen was an avid fisherman and boater and enjoyed restoring old cars and growing fruit and vegetables in his garden.

He also devoted much of his time to his family, remodeling his children's homes and building furniture and toys for his grandchildren.

"He's one of the most generous, family-oriented people I know," Parsons said. "With the first house I bought, I didn't know what to do with the bathroom. He tore it up and remodeled it in his spare time."

Mr. Bargreen once built a wooden bed in the shape of a boat for one of his grandchildren. He also had nearly completed a two-story tree house for some of his grandchildren before he died.

"He built everything but the roof," said his business partner and brother-in-law, Kim Blunt. "(The tree house) had grown to such proportions that the kids were calling it their condo."

He was a lifelong resident of Everett and Lake Stevens and once served on the Lake Stevens School Board in the late 1970s.

In high school, Mr. Bargreen was a track and football star, Blunt said.

He was also a member of the advisory board of Eagle Snacks, Inc., and a board director for Wilcox Farms in Yelm, Thurston County.

Mr. Bargreen is survived by his wife of 37 years, Carol Bargreen; daughters Cheryl Parsons of Bridgeport, Douglas County, and Tammy Biggs of Snohomish; sons John Bargreen of Lake Stevens, Snohomish County, Peter Bargreen of Birmingham, Ala., and Paul Bargreen of Lake Stevens; and nine grandchildren.

He also is survived by his mother Grace Wilcox Bargreen, his sister Sharon Blunt and brother Howie Bargreen, all of Everett.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 15, at the First Presbyterian Church, 2936 Rockefeller, in Everett.