Robert S. Laney, Artist At Heart And Building Engineer By Trade

Although Robert S. Laney spent three decades as a building engineer at Pacific Northwest Bell and managed its 1962 Seattle World's Fair exhibit, he once seemed a sure bet for a career in art or entertainment.

From his youth he had an artist's eye and a pop-singer's "pipes."

While cutting trails during the day for the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, he dashed off cartoons in his spare time.

He played guitar and sang with a combo on weekends. And he worked as a radio announcer in Juneau, displaying a quick mind for jokes.

He also had tubercular lungs. After recuperating, he became a draftsman and engineer.

"He learned it all from the ground up and had no formal training in music, the arts or engineering," said his longtime friend Oswald Curtis of North Bend. "But he always did beautiful work with whatever he attempted. He was particularly good at hand-lettering."

Mr. Laney died of heart failure Monday, July 22. He was 81.

"He was a fascinating person and quite a character," said his daughter Kim Laney of Fall City. "He was an artist at heart."

Mr. Laney graduated from Seattle's Garfield High School in 1933. His adventuresome spirit prompted him to work for the government-run CCC, where he learned surveying and engineering.

In 1936, he left for Alaska on what Curtis calls "a fly-by-night, get-rich-quick mining scheme."

The mine that an old seafarer had told them about turned out to be filled with water, so Mr. Laney took a job in radio, entertaining in smoke-filled saloons at night.

When TB struck, he spent six months in a Seattle-area sanitarium, then hired on as a draftsman at an architectural firm. He joined Bell in 1953 and retired in 1979.

In recent years, he enjoyed traveling and gambling.

"My wife and I were in our hotel room in Vegas one night," Curtis said, "and he just walked in and plunked $1,500 in winnings on our bed. We went out to dinner."

Other survivors include his daughters Bobby Dahm of Sunnyvale,

Calif., and Barbara Miller, Menlo Park, Calif., and a sister, Evelyn Nielsen, Seattle. His wife, Helen Laney, died in 1993. Services for Mr. Laney were held. Remembrances may go to the People's Memorial Association, 2366 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, WA, 98102.