Clarence Svendsen, 62-year employee
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In an age when it's said people will change careers about every seven years and company loyalty is a thing of the past, Clarence Svendsen stood out as a reminder of how the world once functioned.
Before his death Wednesday (June 20) at 93, after a two-month battle with cancer, Mr. Svendsen had worked for the Fisheries Supply Co. for 62 years.
When Mr. Svendsen retired at age 88 in 1996, Carl Sutter, Fisheries Supply owner, was asked to make a speech.
To prepare for the event, Sutter said he thought about how long 62 years is and began calculating how many days an employee would have come to work in that time, how many invoices he would have written and how many customers he would have served.
"We had some fun with it," Sutter said. "It was in the millions. It just goes on and on."
That work was only part of a life that could not be paralleled today, said Mr. Svendsen's daughter, Julie Schmidt.
Mr. Svendsen was born in Seattle in 1908 and moved to Norway with his parents for a few years but returned to the United States after his parents decided living in America was better.
He would later tell stories about helping build a highway to Mount Baker in Whatcom County, living in West Seattle, where the family kept a cow, and living in a hunting lodge in Bellevue when it was a remote destination - so far away that city dwellers from Seattle went there to hunt.
In the summer of 1934, Mr. Svendsen took part in Alaska's last commercial whale hunt from a whaling station, and years later he was interviewed by researchers from the University of Washington about his memories of that now-vanished occupation, recalled his daughter.
The next year, Mr. Svendsen married and began looking for a more stable job, starting then with Fisheries Supply. He and his wife, Olive, bought their house in the Sunset Hill area in 1949, and Mr. Svendsen lived there up until a few weeks before his death. His wife died in 1993.
Fisheries Supply originated on Seattle's Pier 55 in 1928 and moved to the north edge of Lake Union some 20 years ago. Mr. Svendsen made that move and then ended his career in outside sales throughout the Puget Sound area.
Sutter, who's 61, remembers seeing Mr. Svendsen at the Pier 55 location when Sutter began helping in the family business there as a child.
"He was tough, strong, a tender-hearted guy," Sutter said. "He knew part and parcel of everything about building a boat or repairing a boat. He was a great man. Absolutely amazing."
Mr. Svendsen also was an active member of the Norwegian community in Seattle. He was a member and past president of the Norwegian Commercial Club. He also was a past president of the Sons of Norway and the longest-serving member of that organization, having belonged for 76 years.
He sang in the Norwegian Male Chorus of Seattle for more than 50 years. He was widely noted for playing the harmonica and accordion.
Besides Schmidt, Mr. Svendsen is survived by another daughter, Christine Schwald, of Whidbey Island, and a son, Robert Svendsen, of Seattle. A second son, Mark, died of leukemia in 1956.
A celebration of Mr. Svendsen's life will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Leif Erickson Lodge, 2245 N.W. 57th St.
Remembrances are suggested to the Norse Home, 5311 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103.
Peyton Whitely can be reached at 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com.