P-I cartoonist Bob McCausland

He was born in 1959 and lived for 22 years in the imagination, and pen, of cartoonist Bob McCausland.

Hairbreadth Husky would appear twice a week, once before and once after each Husky game. Even opposing coaches loved him.

Here's a cartoon penned for the 1961 Rose Bowl game, where the University of Washington Huskies played Minnesota. "We're looking for a Mr. Cliff Hanger who badgered a friend of ours last Jan. 1," a huge gopher ranted after the Huskies won the game.

Another shows a Cougar bobbing apples with a Husky before a Washington State game.

Mr. McCausland, 90, died Friday night while attending a Garrison Keillor performance at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville. His wife, Ruth, said he collapsed in the heat.

"I think his heart just wore out," Ruth McCausland said. He was given a pacemaker after his third surgery for cancer two years ago, she said.

Mr. McCausland, a longtime cartoonist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was born in Seattle. As a young man, he joined the Army and served during World War II. When the war ended in 1945, he went to the P-I with his portfolio and was asked when he could start.

Mr. McCausland worked at the P-I for 33 years, illustrating everything from food stories to sketching defendants in courtrooms.

But it was Hairbreadth Husky that drew the most fervent fans. "When he first began appearing ... he didn't have a name," said Martin Rudow, in his book about Hairbreadth Husky. "Bob McCausland found that he could have more fun with his Husky cartoon characters if they didn't take themselves too seriously, and so grew the idea of Hairbreadth Husky as we came to know him: slightly underfed, sporting a booster hat and a too-large letterman's jacket, plucky but overmatched."

Former Husky coach Don James has one of the drawings in his home. "We looked forward to [the cartoons]," he said. "It was cute the way he used them, and he was always positive."

P-I reporter Gordie Holt knew Mr. McCausland when Holt was a sportswriter at the paper. "He was an incredibly creative guy," Holt said. "He was a sculptor, a woodcarver, universally an art guy who couldn't leave things alone."

After Mr. McCausland retired, he and his wife moved to Tokeland, Pacific County, on the north shore of Willapa Bay, where they lived for 27 years. Last month they moved into a guesthouse near Olympia owned by their son Gary.

The couple had just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

They were charter members of the Westport-South Beach Historical Society, and Mr. McCausland painted a mural for the state's centennial celebration. He designed 29 plaques along Westport's harbor and painted a mural on Swanson's grocery in Aberdeen. He continued to publish a weekly cartoon in the Aberdeen Daily World until he officially retired last October, on his 90th birthday.

Ruth McCausland said her husband created Hairbreadth Husky because the UW football team, always the underdog, would win by a hair.

"He carved, he whittled, he did stained glass," she said. "He carved me 120 miniature birds, which are beautiful."

She said her husband was a workaholic but still loved to go camping with his family.

Son Gary recalled the day, when he was in second grade, that his father came to talk to his class. "He did this wonderful thing, drew illustrations on the chalkboard and talked about the newspaper business," said Gary McCausland. When it was over, he said, he asked for questions and one child raised his hand: " 'Can you draw Donald Duck?' My dad didn't have a clue who Donald Duck was. He was an artist who stuck with his own things, and I was embarrassed."

Another time, he said, his father spent months in the basement on a secret project. On Christmas morning, the McCausland brothers found a model train and village, all handpainted, just like the train in Skykomish.

Mr. McCausland's other son, Paul, said his father loved the ocean and history. "He was always giving his time and his art talent to projects, even up to the very end. He was always fiddling. He always had things in mind that people would appreciate."

The family said a memorial service will be scheduled later. They requested that donations in Mr. McCausland's memory be sent to the Aberdeen Museum of History, 111 East Third St., Aberdeen, 98520; the Westport Maritime Museum, 2201 Westhaven Drive, P.O. Box 1074, Westport, 98595-1074; or the Westport Timberland Library, 506 N. Montesano St., P.O. Box 1410, Westport, 98595-1410.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com