Archive for November, 2008
Milton Robert Knight
Milton Robert Knight passed away peacefully Wednesday, November 19th, in Kirkland after a courageous battle against cancer. Bob was born in Seattle and graduated from Queen Anne High School. He served two years in the Army Signal Corp. near Anchorage, AK. He graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane with a degree in Physics and Engineering. He worked for 39 years as a design engineer and supervisor for United Control/Sundstrand Data Control in Redmond.
Upon retirement, Bob organized and volunteered with the Kirkland Amateur Radio Emergency Service. He also was a volunteer for the Puget Sound Blood Center. He was an ordained deacon and elder in several Presbyterian churches in the area.
Bob will be dearly missed by many, especially by his wife Anna Lou, sons David (Sandee) and Douglas (Marci), brother William (Dorothy) and sister Marilyn, granddaughters Arianne (Josh), Ashley, and Ariel, and two great grandsons, Michael and Alex.
Tuesday, November 25th, a memorial service will be held at 3:00 pm at Lake Forest Park Presbyterian Church, 17440 Brookside Blvd. NE in Lake Forest Park.
In lieu of flowers, memorials maybe sent to Summer Camp Fund of Children’s Hospital and Medical Center.
Hymin Shapiro
Hymin Shapiro died on November 1 in Seattle, where he lived for 8 years. He was a long-time employee of Ethyl Corporation.
He was born in Detroit on April 8, 1915 to Fannie Zuckerman Shapiro and Bernard Samuel Shapiro. He started school in the second grade and graduated from Northern High School in Detroit at the age of 15. He went on to Detroit’s Wayne State University, receiving a B. S. in Chemistry in 1934. He then took off a year to work as a painter for his father’s construction business before going onto the University of Michigan, where he earned a Masters degree in chemistry in 1936. He was refused entry into a Ph. D. program at the University because its “Jewish quota” was filled.
After sending some 200 letters to potential employers, Hy accepted an offer from what was to become his sole employer over his adult life. He was hired as chemist in the Ethyl company’s Detroit research laboratory, at the then high salary of $160 per month. He went on to become Assistant Director of Chemistry Research for the company. In 1957 he was transferred from Detroit to the company’s major facility in Baton Rouge, LA, where he served as Senior Research Advisor until his retirement in 1985.
Hy generated 110 patents during his career, mostly in the fields of organometallic chemistry. Perhaps the most significant of these is a patent on new organomanganese compounds, which became the basis of a commercial anti-knock compound for gasoline. In 1968 he co-authored The Organic Compounds of Lead with Frederick Frey.
Hy’s marriage to Bernice Bassichis in 1939 ended after 15 years. He is survived by two children, Gary and Galia, from the marriage. He married Betty Moss in 1956. They had a wonderful and long marriage until Betty’s death in 2006. Hy’s early retirement years were marked by travel with Betty to Africa, Asia, and the American tropics. In 2000, Hy and Betty moved to the Seattle area to be near Betty’s son and daughter-in-law, Bob and Sue Moss. Hy is survived by his sister Stacia, as well as his children and stepson.
Arthur Jacobsen – October 28, 2008
Arthur Johanus Jacobsen, 94, of Bothell, WA, passed away peacefully on October 28, 2008 after a courageous battle with lung cancer.
He was born on September 1, 1914 in East Chain, Minnesota, the third of four children, to Martin K. and Christine Jacobsen who were poor farmers and newly arrived from Denmark. In a unique twist of fate, he was born on the same day as his father and on the same day as his father’s father.
In the early 1920s, when he was about 7 years old, the family moved back to Denmark because Christine was homesick. Six years later, they returned to the U.S. and, after a banker absconded with their savings, they were forced to eke out a living on a farm. Art quit school to work. In 1933, after his favorite sister, Laura, died of TB, he followed his older brother, Chris, to Seattle where there was a promise of a good job. He was nineteen then. In Seattle he lived and worked on the dairy farm which belonged to Harold Virkelyst in what is now the Crown Hill area just south of Carkeek Park. He met and married Betty Jane Moore in Seattle on September 2, 1940. They had four children together:
Art was a very hard worker with an innate sense of business. He provided a good life for his family. The man with only an 8th grade education owned the largest milk delivery route in Seattle. When he began his business, he worked for 12 years without taking a single day off. He was a milk deliveryman for 40 years.
Art was a good father to his children and a faithful and loving husband to Betty for more than 68 years. His devotion to Betty was legendary and their marriage an inspiration to all. The tragic loss of their first-born child, Sandy, early in their marriage, only served to strengthen their bond.
Art will be remembered most for his love of hunting, camping, and fishing which he passed on to his sons. He taught his sons conservation, respect for living things, and a love of the outdoors decades before the word “ecology” ever entered the American vocabulary.
Arthur is survived by his wife, Betty, his two sons, Gary (Diane) of Lake Havasu City AZ, and Chris (Heidi) of Seattle, and by his two grandchildren Michael Neal Jacobsen of Lacey and Corey Todd Jacobsen (Justine) of Cheyenne, WY, two great-grandsons, Deryk and Ryan Jacobsen, loving nieces, Marjolaine Schmitt of Sioux Falls SD, Judi Weiser of Seattle, Lollie Jacobsen of Mendocino CA., nephew Don Jacobsen of Seattle, and many grand nieces and grand nephews.
Art was preceded in death by his mother and father, his brother Chris, his sisters Laura and Catherine, his daughter Sandy, and his son Michael.
A celebration of his life will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, November 15 in the upstairs Ballroom of the South County Senior Center, 220 Railroad Avenue, Edmonds, Washington. Everyone who knew him and loved him is invited. Please come and bring your favorite story for this celebration of Art’s life. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the charity of your choice.
