Sivert Skotheim, 86, Influenced Generations As Teacher, Principal
When Sivert O. "Scotty" Skotheim was a toddler and sailing from Norway to the United States in 1913, he slipped on the ship's deck and slid through an open gate into the ocean.
Fortunately, his mother had bundled him in so many wool clothes that he stayed afloat long enough for a nearby boat to fish him out. So he made it to Seattle, where he lived a long, busy and influential life.
Mr. Skotheim, 86, died of a stroke Tuesday (Aug. 5) at Horizon House, where he and his wife Marjorie moved eight years ago.
"He was industrious, a very hard worker, a classic immigrant story," said his granddaughter, Marjorie Skotheim of Seattle. When Skotheim was asked if he would have done anything differently, she said, "he said he wished he had worked harder."
Mr. Skotheim influenced generations of children as a teacher and principal at Fauntleroy, E.C. Hughes and Highland Park schools in Seattle.
Hard work was a family trait. When Mr. Skotheim was 11, he lost his fisherman father to the sea. So the young man attended school part time so he could sell newspapers at First and Pike to help his mother.
His mother stressed education. He responded, winning a scholarship to allow him to go full time to Broadway High School, where he won the top academic award when he graduated in 1930.
Persuaded by his principal to take the college preparatory course rather than business track, he went on to become Seattle's youngest principal in the early 1940s.
He graduated from Bellingham Normal School, now Western Washington University, and later earned a B.A. and M.A. in history at the University of Washington.
His love of education impressed his son, Robert, who served as president of Whitman College in Walla Walla for 13 years and is now president of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif.
After Mr. Skotheim retired, he and his wife traveled the world and visited his birthplace in Skotheimsvik, Norway.
He was an avid hiker and took his family on treks throughout the Olympics, where he had a cabin near the mouth of the Elwha River. It is there on the river where his ashes will be scattered.
Other survivors include his sister, Mollie Santoro of Seattle; daughters Alice Garrett of Portland, Ore.; Mary Belshaw of Everett, and Kristin Barber of Clipper, Whatcom County; 12 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Horizon House chapel, 900 University St., Seattle. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Sivert and Marjorie Skotheim History Lectureship, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
Tom Brune's phone message number is 206-464-2997. His e-mail address is: tbru-new@seatimes.com