"Bill" Elfendahl, Boeing engineer and mountaineer, dies at 89
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And many mountains in the Northwest shivered under Mr. Elfendahl's yodels.
Mr. Elfendahl, 89, a mountaineer, Boy Scout leader and Boeing engineer, died last Monday in Seattle after a stroke.
"He has this passion for outdoor activities," said Gerald Elfendahl, a Bainbridge Island historian. "He personified the ethic of the mountaineer."
An avid climber, skier and sailor, Mr. Elfendahl was one of the founders of REI, holding card number 16. He was active in the Mountaineers, teaching climbing to students such as noted author and conservationist Harvey Manning.
"He was one of those people, without trying to be, who was always the center of any group," Manning said. "The stories he told of past climbs served to knit the generations together. Whenever he started to tell a story, you have to listen."
One story, Manning said, involved a hike of Mount Anderson on the Olympic Peninsula. The group of climbers with Mr. Elfendahl decided to take a shortcut down and stood on a ridge, peering down into the fog. One of the climbers volunteered to go first, sliding down the hill and bouncing off one rock and then another. The faint voice reached up to his companions, "It isn't safe, fellows, it isn't safe."
Another climber, Tom Miller, met Mr. Elfendahl through his father, who also worked at Boeing. "He was always generous with his time and he was very careful. He knew climbing was intrinsically dangerous."
On one trip, he said, Miller's father went along and waited at the base camp. Before they left for the climb, Tom Miller said, Mr. Elfendahl "made sure I stopped and woke my dad up and said goodbye. This is how he understands the issue."
Mr. Elfendahl loved to ski, and one of his favorite places was Paradise on Mount Rainier. He liked to ski a remote area near Mount Rainier, camping in the snow. It's now the Crystal Mountain ski area, and he was one of the original stockholders and helped lay out the ski trails.
Gerald Elfendahl said his father liked to lead skiers through trees, "and we knew you'd better stick with him because he knew the safe way down, or you might end up in the creek upside down."
Mr. Elfendahl skied until he was 85.
He also was a scoutmaster and would lead his Boy Scout troop on mountain climbs. He was presented the Silver Beaver Award by the Boy Scouts for his longtime service to youth.
Born in Alameda, Calif., Mr. Elfendahl moved to the Seattle area as a child when his father, a forester, got a job here. "He grew up with a sense of the forest and the out-of-doors," said Gerald Elfendahl.
Once, he said, in the 1930s his father was Seattle mayor for the day. His main accomplishment: He was able to get his fellow DeMolay youth members into a Husky football game for free.
Mr. Elfendahl worked at Boeing for 43 years, leaving in 1979 with the third-highest seniority of any Boeing worker in the world. He began as a draftsman and helped design the 707 and 747. He even was a clown for Boeing's annual family holiday circuses.
Mr. Elfendahl also loved to sail, and he sponsored the first minority members in both the Corinthian Yacht Club and the Mountaineers. In recent years he and his wife, Sarah, liked to travel the country in a motor home.
Mr. Elfendahl also worked as a mentor at Hazel Valley Elementary School in Burien, volunteered at Highline Hospital and tended to drug-addicted babies at Kent's Pediatric Interim Care Center.
He is survived by another son, Lawrence, of Kingston, Kitsap County; stepson Richard Christianson of San Diego; and stepdaughter Chris Moss of Seattle. His first wife, Florence, preceded him in death.
Services are pending. The family asks that remembrances be sent to the Northwest Kidney Center Foundation, P.O. Box 3035, Seattle, WA 98114, or to Kent's Pediatric Interim Care Center at 233 South Second Ave., Kent, WA 98032.
Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com