Educator Arne Strand, 78, Honored His Norwegian Roots

Educator Arne Strand's crowning moment in recent times was showing up for the Bothell Sons of Norway Lutefisk Dinner. He went every year.

In a wheelchair and fighting pneumonia after major surgery, but with a twinkle in his eye, he attended this year's feed Dec. 3, delighting friends and countrymen.

He died two days later, at 78.

Mr. Strand was a Norwegian first and a school principal second - though he is remembered as the latter by students, including U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (class of `68) - who passed through Bothell High School during his tenure, 1956 to 1974.

Born to immigrant parents in Poulsbo, he grew up with old-country values. He had a keen sense of right and wrong, which he applied at the schools where he taught or was an administrator.

He taught in Sumner before becoming principal in Bothell, where he also served on the City Council.

"He was our principal when my brother, sister and I went there," said his son, Alan Strand of Redmond. "This was when gentlemen didn't come to school unshaven, and girls always came in dresses.

"He didn't lecture when we did wrong; he just had us admit it and then move on. He held no grudges."

Mr. Strand had helped support his family during the Depression, so his children were expected to learn the value of work. He encouraged them to earn money mowing lawns and picking berries.

"When we were out picking berries on a summer day, Dad would stop by, take off his sport coat and pick berries right beside us," said his son.

That sort of example-setting was one way Mr. Strand commanded respect. Another was asking youth and teachers to participate in solutions to problems, rather than issuing edicts.

"He never said an unkind word about anyone and no one said an unkind word about him," said his son. "He always asked teachers, `How can I help you do your job?' With students, he knew they'd have problems, but always asked them to work it through with him."

Mr. Strand, who in the 1970s served as president of the state Secondary Educators Association, felt different people learn differently. So he stressed academics and extracurricular activities equally.

Former colleague "Si" Siverson said Mr. Strand was extremely loyal, whether to fellow graduates of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, his kids, or his staff.

Former University of Washington men's basketball coach Marv Harshman, who attended PLU after Mr. Strand, played golf with him. Harshman, whose wife is Swedish, would tell Swedish jokes about Norwegians.

But Mr. Strand, although serious at golf as well as in life, not only took it with good grace, but happily needled Harshman back.

Other survivors include his wife, Carla Cain Strand of Everett; son Norman of Gresham, Ore.; daughter Nancy Watts of Monroe; sister Dorothy Storseth and brother Peter Storseth, both of Seattle, and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Virginia, died in 1983.

Services have been held. Remembrances may be sent to First Lutheran Church of Bothell, 10207 N.E. 183rd St., Bothell, WA, 98011.