Robert Mclauchlan Loved Boating And Also Made His Living From It

Love of the sea and boating marked the life of Seattle businessman Robert d'Evers McLauchlan.

"He loved boating," said his brother, John McLauchlan, a retired Seattle attorney. "He loved to take his family out and share maritime pleasures with everybody."

Marilyn McLauchlan, Mr. McLauchlan's daughter, remembers a childhood of boating - cruising through the San Juans and in Canadian waters or just jumping off the boat to swim in Lake Washington.

"We were always on that thing," a power boat named the Blue Marlin, she recalled.

At one point, the McLauchlans belonged to the Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club in Bellevue, and they were voted the family that used their boat the most, Marilyn McLauchlan said.

Mr. McLauchlan, the son of Adelaide d'Evers and the Very Rev. John Donald McLauchlan, the first Dean (pastor) of Seattle's St. Marks Cathedral, died Friday. He was 81.

Not only did Mr. McLauchlan use his boat for pleasure, but during the warmer weather he also took his boat to work. From his home at Pleasant Beach on Bainbridge Island, he took the Blue Marlin to Shilshole. He left it there and went to Canvas Supply Co. in Ballard, which he owned.

Mr. McLauchlan's association with the sea goes back to his youth. Maxine McLauchlan, his wife, said that when he was 18, Mr. McLauchlan got a job as a cadet on the President Madison, a passenger liner. On it, he visited Japan and China.

But when the ship arrived in Hawaii on its way back, the mate, for some unknown reason, refused to let Mr. McLauchlan off the vessel for a visit. So he "jumped ship," Maxine McLauchlan said.

Since he left the ship with little money, he soon was broke and out of food. A deaconess from Mr. McLauchlan's father's Seattle church encountered him there and wrote to his father that he was having a lot of fun, but starving, Maxine McLauchlan said. His father then sent him money so he could return home.

Mr. McLauchlan's grandfather once owned Canvas Supply Co., which is now being run by Mr. McLauchlan's three grandsons, Tony, Brian and Chris. It then was called Sunde and d'Evers and as a ship chandlery business it supplied ships, many en route to Alaska, with sails, other canvas goods and about everything a new ship could need, explained John McLauchlan.

The business originally was established in 1882 on Seattle's waterfront at Pier 52, the present site of the state ferry dock.

Even though he suffered a stroke several years ago that limited his activity, Mr. McLauchlan still would show up at work as recently as two weeks ago, Tony McLauchlan said.

His grandfather was a hard-working businessman, but like all the "old-schoolers," he was "extremely independent and feisty," Tony McLauchlan said.

But Mr. McLauchlan was also "extremely fair. He always wanted to give them (the customers) the best deal and not gouge them," Tony McLauchlan said.

Marilyn McLauchlan remembers her father as raising his family with a sense of adventure. "We did everything," she recalled. Not only boating, but water skiing, snow skiing - "we were always active," she said.

She remembers her father as a man who "took chances." She said he advised her to "go for it" when she was considering opening a real-estate business on Bainbridge Island - even though it was during a recession,

Mr. McLauchlan graduated from Broadway High School in the late 1920s, then attended the University of Washington, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity.

During World War II, Mr. McLauchlan worked as a purchasing agent for the Associated Ship Builders on Lake Union, and before joining his grandfather's business, he operated a small sawmill east of North Bend.

Besides his wife, daughter, brother and grandsons, Mr. McLauchlan is survived by a son, Robert McLauchlan of Soap Lake, another brother, the Rev. Frederick McLauchlan of Seattle, and granddaughters Suzanne and Laurie Selfors of Bainbridge Island.

A memorial service was scheduled for today at 2 p.m. at St. Mark's Cathedral. Remembrances may be sent to the Bainbridge Island Fire Department.