Irving Sternoff, businessman whose passion was the stage

When a telemarketer would call Irving Sternoff's home, invariably at dinnertime, he would answer the phone, talk to the salesman for 15 minutes and always, always give money.

"It made my mother crazy," said Mr. Sternoff's daughter, Sandra Allen. "His feeling was that if someone cared enough to make the phone call, he deserved some money."

It was one example of a lifetime of generosity for the scrap metal/operatic king of Seattle.

Mr. Sternoff, 87, died July 1 from heart diseases in his Kirkland home. He was the last surviving member of a family of nine children who grew up in Seattle's Central Area.

Mr. Sternoff's father was a blacksmith in Russia who moved to the United States in 1905 and worked for the Great Northern Railroad. When he moved to Seattle, he started what would become Sternoff Metals, where Mr. Sternoff and his brothers worked.

But he very nearly became a star of the stage, his first love. He developed a love of music at Garfield High School, said Mr. Sternoff's son Bill, and met an Italian immigrant, Alphonso LaSalle, who ran a shoe-repair shop in the Central Area. LaSalle tutored Mr. Sternoff in opera, accepting no money, and, in 1961, Mr. Sternoff rewarded him with a trip to Italy.

Mr. Sternoff, drafted in World War II, made money on his days off singing at weddings and funerals. He became a pilot and went AWOL by flying to Paris for its liberation. He also made unauthorized trips to secure ale for the men in his squadron, escaping punishment, said his son, because he also was flying booze in for the general.

After the war, he moved to New York, where he studied music and won the part of Jud Frye, the villain in the musical "Oklahoma!" He toured with a national "Oklahoma!" company.

He then got a call from his brothers saying they needed him to help run the family business on East Marginal Way.

"We think they were jealous that their younger brother was having the time of his life doing what he wanted to do," said son Bill. "He regretted [leaving New York] every day of his life. He would have kept singing and acting."

But he maintained his passion in Seattle, appearing in local productions, many at Green Lake's Aqua Theater.

His love of opera and his scrap-metal business merged when, each year, he was asked to provide the anvil for the production of Richard Wagner's "The Ring."

Mr. Sternoff married in 1949 and, the family story goes, his wife, Winnie, was from Aberdeen, where eligible men were so scarce that her brothers threw in a baby-grand piano to ensure the marriage would proceed. The family still has the piano.

"One thing we got from our father was a work ethic," said Bill Sternoff, of Bellevue. "He would work as many hours a day as it took, often working alongside his men."

He would come home from work with dirt and grease on his clothes, getting it on the white carpet that led to his bedroom. "No one ever stopped to ask why a scrap-metal dealer had white carpet in his house in the first place," his family wrote in an obituary.

He was always punctual, the first to arrive at a party and the last to leave. His friendships were the most important thing in his life, said his son. "He gathered people like a magnet," he said, inviting people on his boat to University of Washington Husky football games.

"Dad was part of a generation that made Seattle great long before Boeing and high tech," said Bill Sternoff. "Seattle became great because he and other people were children of immigrants working together, appreciating their similarities and differences and respecting each other regardless of their backgrounds."

In addition to his wife, son Bill and his daughter, Mr. Sternoff is survived by another son, Robert, of Kirkland.

Services will be held today, at Arthur A. Wright Chapel, 520 W. Raye St., in Seattle. A reception will follow at the Woodmark Hotel, 1200 Carillon Point, in Kirkland.

The family asks that donations in Mr. Sternoff's name be made to the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, JWV national headquarters, 1811 R St. NW, Washington, DC 20009; the Caroline Kline Galland Home, fund development, 1200 University St., Seattle, WA 98101-2883, or the Museum of Flight, 9494 East Marginal Way S., Tukwila, WA 98108.

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