Edwin Stevenson, Started At Bottom, Worked To Top Of Railroad Industry

Edwin Stevenson laid down the tracks of his success with his first summer job, as a Spokane teenager performing odd jobs for Union Pacific.

In later years, he would have his own boxcar for entertaining and transporting executives, as vice president of a merged Burlington Northern railway company.

"Ed was thought of very highly in the transportation industry," said Edward O'Neill, a longtime friend and past president of the Burlington Northern Veterans Association, Seattle chapter. "He's the typical example of a person that started at the bottom and worked his way up to the top."

Mr. Stevenson, who watched the growth of the railroad industry from the ground up, died Saturday (June 11). The longtime Magnolia resident was 87.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1907, Mr. Stevenson moved with his family to Spokane, where he attended high school. While serving as a sergeant for the National Guard, he went to Washington State University in 1927 and 1928, where he studied journalism and played football.

He left school to marry Florence, whom he met through a friend on his high-school football team, said his son, Stanley Stevenson. They were married 64 years.

After working summers for Union Pacific, he joined the railroad as a full-time employee, working as a timekeeper, roadmaster clerk and clerk in the superintendent's office. He was laid off in 1935 when the Depression-struck railroad could not keep him on.

A year later Mr. Stevenson joined Northern Pacific as a stenographer and clerk, working in Spokane, Walla Walla, Yakima and Pasco. The company moved him to the Seattle traffic department in 1937, and three years later, he was promoted to a city freight agent post.

After a two-year stint in Tacoma for the company, he became the assistant general freight and passenger agent in Seattle in 1956.

Holding numerous other positions, and after a one-year assignment in New York City, Mr. Stevenson and his family settled in St. Paul, where in 1960 he was named the assistant vice president of the railroad's traffic department. In 1965, he became the vice president of freight and passenger traffic. Five years later, he helped forge the merger of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads to become Burlington Northern in 1970.

He retired a short time later as the railroad's vice president of sales and service.

Mr. Stevenson and his wife returned to Seattle in 1972, settling in Magnolia, where they lived until his wife died in 1993, his son said. He then moved into his son's Kent home.

The man who spent his life working to the tune of a train whistle was definitely a punctual man, noted his daughter, Eugenie Kufus of St. Paul. He always managed to make time for his family, she added.

He often would spend his free time watching football games. Formerly a Minnesota Vikings fan, he transferred his loyalty to the Seattle Seahawks, his son said.

Mr. Stevenson also enjoyed swapping stories and keeping up with the railroad industry through his membership in the Burlington Northern Veterans Association, a group of employees who had worked at least 20 years for the railroad.

He was preceded in death by a son, Edwin, last year.

Survivors include a daughter-in-law, Delores Stevenson of Everett; eight grandchildren; eleven great-grandchildren; two sisters, Celia Strang of Seattle and Alice Hicks of Seattle; and a brother, John Stevenson of Tacoma.

A memorial service will be held at noon tomorrow at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home at 11027 Meridian Ave. N.

Contributions may be made to Children's Hospital & Medical Center or Seattle's Medic One.