Charles W. Loomis Headed Family Armored-Car Company
Charles Wesley Loomis and his family's Seattle-based Loomis Armored Car Service had a lock for 54 years on the armored transport of currency and securities among West Coast banks and businesses.
Founded in 1925 by his grandfather, the firm grew to handle hundreds of millions of dollars daily until its sale in 1979 to an Australian conglomerate, Mayne Nickless.
Mr. Loomis was Loomis president from 1960 until 1979 and later served on the new firm's North American board of directors. He was also a caring businessman who liked to throw company picnics, give employees Thanksgiving turkeys and send them gift certificates after the birth of a child. He also funded small causes, such as a chaplaincy for people left homeless by fires.
Bible teachings were important to him; he was mindful of the example he set.
"I heard him swear only once, when I was 10 and riding in a car with him and he rear-ended another car," said his son, Walter Loomis of Seattle. "I looked out the window and pretended I hadn't heard.
"Then when I was 11 or so, I asked him why, if smoking was bad for a person, he still smoked. After that I never saw him smoke again."
Mr. Loomis died Wednesday (March 4) of the effects of Alzheimer's disease. He was 76.
Born in Outlook, Yakima County, he grew up in Seattle and at the family vacation home on Bainbridge Island. He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1939, then attended Washington State University before enlisting in the Army Air Forces.
After the war he finished his degree in business administration at WSU, then moved to Seattle to enter the firm his grandfather, Lee B. Loomis, had begun in Portland and moved to Seattle in 1933. He drove armored trucks and worked his way up.
Lee B. Loomis got the idea for a transport service while carrying gold dust by dogsled for Alaska prospectors. When he moved to Portland in the early 1920s, he saw the need for a service similar to Brinks on the East Coast.
There was initial resistance, but his idea caught on after a rash of robberies of foot messengers.
"Old No. 1," the original 3-ton, crank-start Loomis armored car, was built on a White truck chassis with steel plating and 2-inch-thick bulletproof windows. It now is garaged in Vancouver, B.C., and brought out for parades.
"The family actually used Old No. 1 for target practice on a back lot somewhere after it was retired in the 1930s," Walter Loomis said.
Charles Wesley Loomis was a past president and director of the National Armored Car Association. He belonged to Seattle No. 4 Rotary Club, Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Boys Club of Seattle.
He also was president of the Loomis Foundation, founded by him and his father in 1962 to help fund charities.
His interests included golf, music, swimming, fishing and photography.
Other survivors include his wife of 52 years, Betty McCall Loomis of Seattle, daughter Ann Loomis of Seattle and six grandchildren. His daughter Catherine died in 1976.
A public memorial service is at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Sand Point Methodist Church, 4710 N.E. 70th St., Seattle.
Remembrances may go to the Dean's Fund for Alzheimer's Research, University of Washington School of Medicine, P.O. Box 358220, Seattle, WA 98195.
Carole Beers' phone message number is 206-464-2391. Her e-mail address is: cbee-new@seatimes.com