Volney Richmond embraced business, fun

Volney Richmond Jr., 93, businessman, philanthropist and skier, died Saturday (Aug. 10) in Seattle.

In 1929, he succeeded his father as president of the Northern Commercial Co., a purveyor of retail supplies to rural Alaska.

The firm had flourished during the late 19th-century gold rush as the Alaska Commercial Co.; in 1922, Mr. Richmond's father led an employee buyout and moved the headquarters to Seattle from San Francisco.

The company earned huge profits selling heavy equipment and parts during construction of the Alaska pipeline in the mid-1970s.

Mr. Richmond was born Aug. 26, 1908, in Fairbanks, Alaska, to Volney Sr. and Florence Richmond, who made many trips into the territory.

He grew up near Lake Washington and as a teenager was sent to the Culver Military Academy in Indiana before attending the University of Washington.

Mr. Richmond was a skiing enthusiast before chairlifts. He was part of a group that would hike up Mount Rainier and ski back down in fresh powder, one run taking an entire day.

He and his wife, Phyllis, traveled to the Swiss Alps. Their vacations, their daughter's debutante ball, family marriages and a $1.9 million family inheritance were chronicled in newspaper society pages in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr. Richmond owned a succession of motorboats, all named the "Dutch Treat," which he piloted on summer trips to Desolation Sound and other British Columbia waters.

Often he would rendezvous at Desolation Sound with his brother, Howard, also a yacht enthusiast, and their families would swim or dig clams onshore.

"He would be down at six or seven in the morning with a Canadian ale, tinkering with the engine," said his son-in-law, Larry Yaw.

Mr. Richmond was a longtime member of the Seattle Golf Club, the Rainier Club and the University Club.

He had a traditional view of the male as breadwinner and rarely showed his emotions except when enjoying himself on family vacations.

"What you saw was what you got, no hidden agendas. Pretty much he said what he thought," said Dean Thornton, a relative by marriage.

One of his chief passions was the Virginia Mason Medical Center, where some of his peers were doctors.

Fascinated by medicine, he would read medical manuals, Yaw said. Mr. Richmond was a major donor to Virginia Mason and served more than 40 years on boards there. An auditorium was named for him several years ago.

He is survived by his wife, of Seattle; son Volney Richmond III and daughter Phyllis Richmond Yaw, both of Colorado; nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

By his request, no memorial service will be held.

Donations may be made to the Virginia Mason Foundation, P.O. Box 1930, Seattle, WA 98101, or Children's Hospital Foundation, P.O. Box 5371, Seattle, WA 98105.

Mike Lindblom can be reached at 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com.