Stanley Tipp, Jeweler Who Liked Common Folks, `Playful Larceny'

Some salesmen are born. Others are made. Stanley Tipp, second-generation Seattle jeweler, was among the former.

Through most of his 73 years, Mr. Tipp was selling, whether it was jewelry, land or himself, recalled his son, Jeffrey Tipp of Vashon Island.

In snappy suits and French-cuffed shirts, sporting a diamond pinky ring and neatly combed wavy hair, he looked sharp, priding himself on what he called "street smarts." He didn't allow much to slide by him.

Mr. Tipp died Saturday of pancreatitis.

From 1982 until last year, he leased a jewelry shop in Seattle's Four Seasons Olympic Hotel. He thought the rent was too high, so he "got back" at Olympic management by dining in the employees' cafeteria, where he was not supposed to eat. He not only sneaked in and ate their cheap food and plenty of it, but gleefully "scored" many free meals.

"He loved to nick the Olympic and anyone else he thought was a `codfish,' or a bigwig taking advantage of the common people," said his son. "He was just very irreverent.

"But he also was very kind. To the doormen, the waiters, all the people who were working hard. People at the QFC on Mercer Island, he would engage anyone, learn their name and what they were doing."

His interest in the "common man" led to his involvement in politics. A lifelong Democrat, he helped in the political campaigns of the late U.S. Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson and former Gov. Albert Rosellini, and ran unsuccessfully for the City Council in 1960.

Rosellini appointed Mr. Tipp to head the Washington State Tax Commission in the late 1950s.

Born in Chicago to second-generation Russian immigrants, Mr. Tipp came west and worked in great-uncle Ben Tipp's jewelry store, then in his father's.

Graduating from Broadway High School, he enlisted in the Army, which posted him to San Francisco during World War II. After his discharge, he returned to his high school and sold the registrar on the idea that he'd risked his life for his country. So she changed all his "E," or near-failing grades into "Bs" to allow him to attend the University of Washington, where he met his future wife.

They married within the year and he opened his own jewelry store. Later, he worked at his cousin's store in Honolulu, where he became an expert on Asian art and jade.

He even briefly sold potential home sites in the Mojave Desert.

"There was a playful larceny to his whole lifestyle," said his son. "He liked to do things his own way. He rejected rigidity and structure. He found a way to get through life on his own terms.

"He would invent these incredible stories about a piece of jewelry, saying it was a rare find from an estate sale, one of a kind and so on, to get the best price. But anyone coming to him with something to sell could expect to be torn apart."

Mr. Tipp's wife of 50 years, Janice Tipp of Mercer Island, said he was a wonderful family man who enjoyed taking walks with her through blueberry fields or along Lake Hills Green Belt.

"We loved to go over there a few days a week," she said. "It was soothing and relaxing. We had an awfully nice life. It was never dull."

Other survivors include his daughter, Deborah Hauck, of Bellevue; brother, Marvin Tipp, Bellevue, and three grandsons.

Services were held. Remembrances may go to any charity.