'Cappy' Wandler, 82, towing-firm owner

Those of a certain age, those who can recall a less-caffeinated and less-polished Ballard neighborhood in Seattle, might remember a stout, brown-haired man named Casper Charles "Cappy" Wandler. You might even have a Cappy pen tucked away somewhere, his children say. Lord knows, he used to give away bushels of them. Good advertising, he figured.

Mr. Wandler ran Cappy's Ballard University Towing for 32 years. "No job too big. No job too small. You call. We haul," read the two-toned green tow trucks. Company stationery featured Andy Capp, the aptly hooded comic-strip character, sitting in a tow truck. Mr. Wandler favored headgear with a much smaller bill. And slippers were de rigueur if a car needed towing in the middle of the night.

Mr. Wandler, who died Saturday (Oct. 18) at age 82 after suffering a heart attack, relished the challenge of hauling cars.

"He'd get calls that other people couldn't do," said his son Jack Wandler of Seattle, who first accompanied his father at the age of 5. "If he could go out and recover some piece of equipment — some bulldozer, some cement truck — that's what really made his day."

One tow-truck story, though, really stood out, recalled daughter Mary Gallardo of Mountlake Terrace. It was the early 1970s. A Cappy truck had been tapped to appear in a John Wayne movie called "McQ." As the story goes, Wayne praised Mr. Wandler for his ability to maneuver the truck into the smallest of spaces.

"That was a thrill for my dad," Gallardo said. "He'd go around later and say, 'Do you want to shake the hand that shook the hand of John Wayne?' "

Mr. Wandler was born Aug. 6, 1921, in Mott, N.D., the first of eight children of Sebastian and Frances Wandler. Between the two parents, there were already five children in the family from previous relationships. As a youngster, he worked in the fields picking vegetables with his father. When he was a teenager, he left home to explore the country. He always found solace in the wide open spaces. He returned to his family when they moved to Montana and then settled in Ballard in 1939.

He first drove a tow truck for a local auto-wrecking company. After a few years, according to Pearl, his wife of 61 years, Mr. Wandler figured, "Heck, why not drive my own truck?" He borrowed $5,000 and set up a business in the couple's house on Northwest 49th Street, by the Ship Canal. It was a 24-hour operation, relying on police scanners in the living room, at first, to indicate where the car wrecks were.

In the early years, Mr. Wandler spent Sundays driving his wife and five children out of Seattle. He'd hunt junked cars, offering to pick them up at no cost. Then he'd take the cars apart, sell the equipment and use the profit to help rebuild tow trucks.

The business outgrew the living room and Mr. Wandler moved Cappy's across the street from his house. On those occasions when customers couldn't pay, he accepted wristwatches as collateral.

Mr. Wandler sponsored race cars at Evergreen Speedway. He was an aggressive Yahtzee player. And he also collected plastic milk crates, an impromptu hobby after a local dairy company offered him a stack. He had up to 3,000 milk crates, said Pearl, who lives in Woodinville.

"I think everyone we know has a Cappy milk crate," she said. And a pen.

Other survivors include daughter Carol Rice of Shoreline; sons Casper S. and Rolly Wandler, both of Seattle; 13 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and seven siblings. A funeral service will be at noon Saturday at the North Seattle Alliance Church, 2150 N. 122nd St. in Seattle, followed by burial at Seattle's Evergreen Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Snohomish County Fire District 7 Memorial Fund, 8010 180th St. S.E., Snohomish, WA 98296.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com