Gordon Munro

James, Gordon and Isabelle Munro with Tom & Lucy Todd. Gordon is walking with a cane, perhaps from trying to fly out a window.

Donald Gordon Munro was born August 4^th, 1908. He was the ninth child in the Munro family and was likely named for his great-grandmother, Mary Gordon Munro, and his uncle Donald Montgomery.

Donald Montgomery – MacKnade, Herbert River, North Queensland, Australia

Gordon’s first solid food was Post Toasties. He grew up on the family farm, swimming in the Bay and going to school at the Pleasant Beach School. He graduated from Winslow High School in 1926.

D. Gordon Munro

Gordon with Survey Instrument

Gordon was an intelligent, creative and adored child who loved adventure and a good joke.

Gordon Jumping the Orange Crate on Gazzam’s Lake – 1928

His niece, Janet Kelley Woll, remembered watching him fly:

When we were kids Gordon and Jimmy slept upstairs in the old house on Bainbridge, in a big double bed by the window. One day a group of us were sitting outside eating cherries off of the trees in front of the house. The next thing we knew Gordon flew out the second-story bedroom window with wings he had made out of paper. They didn’t work too much, but they must have helped him a little. He landed next to that cherry tree and he wasn’t hurt a bit. I always thought that was the funniest thing, watching Gordon fly out that window.

Gordon was quite a slicker – a good-looking young fella – and he had a low-slung car. He was always trying to get girls into that car. One time he got eight girls into it at one time.

Gordon and Jimmy always had fireworks for the family gathering on the 4^th of July. One year, they had a stick of dynamite attached to a little piece of wood, like a small raft. They rowed out into the Bay, set the dynamite afloat and lit the fuse. But in their hurry to row away they lost an oar – so they both dove off and swam to shore!

Gordon loved swimming, fishing and boating. About the time he graduated from high school, he built a sailboat on the beach in front of the family home. His brother James helped with the project. When it was finished, they planned an inaugural trip and their brother George joined the crew.

Gordon Munro’s “Catboat” built on the beach at Crystal Springs

“August or September of 1929 – George took picture. James eating breakfast. Gordon at the fire. First trip on new boat. No mast, no sails. Sears outboard engine. First night on beach at Kingston. Left early in fog going north and ran into Cultus Bay and a big duck pond. Came out and turned North again into Possession Sound and north east Saratoga Passage between Camano and Whidbey Island. Rounded the north end of Camano into Skagit Bay and tried to follow a stern wheeler in smoke and fog, but lost her in very shallow water. Then turned north east and ran to this beach at the north fork of the Skagit. Ten hours in fog.” – Gordon Munro

“First Trip in Catboat – Coming Home through Agate Pass. After Skagit Bay we went through Deception Pass and up to Anacortes, and came home through the ditch at Stanwood to Port Susan between Camano and Warm Beach. We stopped at Suquamish and George bought ice cream.” – Gordon Munro

This was the first of many trips that Gordon, James and George took together over the years, boating and sailing on Puget Sound, through the San Juans, up to Victoria and beyond.

1930 – Gordon went aloft to check the rigging, while sailing from Thatcher to Friday Harbor.

1930 or 1931 – Gordon’s Catboat at Rosario Beach. Bill Hansen (at bow) and Gordon Munro (on stern)

His nephew Donald Dunn recalled:

When I was twelve (1938) my father took me to Navy Yard day. I remember that Gordon was there that day, running a milling machine. Years later, during the war, I worked there for about a year and a half. Gordon worked day shift and I worked 2^nd shift. At that time Gordon was a lead man and worked up in the director’s shop. As he was leaving for the day he would come by and say hello to me. Later he was a Quarterman and he supervised the tool and die shop. But he started in the machine shop. Gordon could be very meticulous – he liked things just so – and that made him very good in the machine shop.

He built his first sailboat alongside the driveway on what became George Munro’s property. It was a wooden sloop, about 20 or 22 feet long. I remember he and my dad and Jimmy and I sailed up to the dock at Keyport, not far from Euphemia’s home. We got ice cream and sailed home again. Gordon kept that boat for a number of years after he was married. He and my dad and George sailed it to the San Juans.

Gordon’s next boat was also a wooden sailboat, probably 32 feet. He and Jimmy used to sail to the San Juans and as far as Nanaimo. His last boat was fiberglass and 34 or 36 feet long. A very nice boat. He eventually sold it because he thought he was going blind. Then he had cataracts removed and found out how good he could see. He said that if he had known, he never would have sold the boat!

Nephew Duncan Munro, Jr. recalled:

When Uncle Gordon launched the sailboat he built, they hid me on board prior to reaching the water. Upon hitting the water and floating free, I appeared and became the first person to be on it.

His niece, Rhea Hodges Devery remembered him as Uncle Soapy:

Gordon was the one who stood up with my parents, Euphemia Munro and Jimmie Hodges, when they got married. He was always Uncle Soapy to me. When I was a baby and we were staying at Grandmother’s while my father was in Samoa, it seemed like I was always in the bathtub when Gordon came by. So he started calling me Soapy. So when I learned to talk I called him Uncle Soapy.

One 4^th of July Gordon showed up wearing this crazy diaper. It was the funniest thing. Most of the people there were fairly prim, and here’s Gordon wearing a diaper and diving off Grandmother’s dock.

In about 1934, Gordon met Marjorie Behrens. She was the youngest child of Jerry and Gina (Hilstad) Behrens. The Hilstad family emigrated from Norway and they settled in Poulsbo in about 1888. Marjorie’s father, Jerry Behrens, was a mining engineer and the son of Washington State Legislator Adolf Behrens. While Marjy was growing up, he worked with his father in real estate and the family lived in Seattle at 1912 Nob Hill Avenue on Queen Anne Hill. Jerry died in a tragic accident in 1927 when Marjy was just thirteen. After his death, Gina managed the Narada, a classy, seven-story apartment building on Queen Anne that looked down on the city and banned children and pets. The family lived on the first floor, behind a door marked “Manager.”

Marjy graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1932 and soon started at the University of Washington.

In the summer, she often spent time with her aunt and uncle, Rachael and Elmer Hilstad, at their cabin at Pleasant Beach on Bainbridge Island. She played tennis at Pleasant Beach, went to the local dances, and rode the ferry back and forth to Seattle. She soon met Jimmy Munro and his niece Janet Kelley-Black. Jimmy was also going to the UW, where he was friends with Marjorie’s brothers, Howard and Arthur. Then, at a dance at Foster’s Dance Hall, Jimmy introduced Marjy to Gordon.

Many years later they explained how they met:

Gordon: We met in about 1933 or ‘34. As I remember, I was going to a dance at the hall at Fletcher’s Bay. We had a few dances.

Marjy: This was a kinda of a nice dance ya know where the whole neighborhood went. It wasn’t just an ordinary public dance hall. It was kind of a friendly place. This was across the Bay at Fletcher’s Bay…

Gordon: It wasn’t right down on the beach, it was up in the woods a ways. The road followed the little bay that goes in there and the hall was about a half a mile from the waterfront. They had big picnics there. I talked to Mrs. Foster once because the supervisors at the Navy Yard had a supervisors association and they asked if I would go up to Foster’s and talk to them about the hall – what it cost to get it and how big a crowd it could take. And she says “My goodness, they’re wondering about the crowd. I had the whole Skinner and Eddy Shipyard here during the First World War for a big picnic, and that was several thousand people.”

Marjy: Well, when we graduated from High School we had our picnic there, from Queen Anne.

Gordon: Jimmy and Marjy were going to the university you see. That’s how I kept track of where Marjorie was. I always knew when she came over to the Island. So then I could call her up on the phone. Jimmy would come home and he’d tell me “Ya know, Marjy was on the boat” and so I’d call her up on the telephone and then I’d go down to see her…

Marjy: He had a nice Auburn car.

Gordon: I had an Auburn Straight 8. That’s what I was driving. From my brother-in-law… Ya see the banks failed in 1932. Roosevelt closed all the banks. And my brother-in-law, Ross Black, was the president of the First National Bank of Bremerton and he had three or four of these big cars for sale at a reasonable price. So I bought this Straight 8 Auburn in 1933. The bank took them in because, during the Depression, people weren’t able to dig up the money to pay them, especially when the banks closed. You couldn’t get your money out of the bank.

Gordon and Marjorie were married on August 4^th, 1935 at the Hilstad family home.

Gordon and Marjorie’s Wedding – 1935 James Munro was the Best Man

Nephew Donald Gordon Dunn told this story about the wedding:

Uncle Gordon always owned a nice car and before he was married he had an Auburn. It was guaranteed to do 115 mph and had a unique sound to the engine. Gordon used to date a girl who lived across the Bay from us. We could tell when he was over there by the sound of that car as it went up the hill. When Gordon and Marjorie were married Gordon had the Auburn at the wedding. These guys stuck a hose up the exhaust pipe and started filling it up with water. In fact, I think the water got up into the engine. When it was full, they plugged the exhaust pipe with an apple. When the time came for Gordon and Marjorie to drive off, the car wouldn’t start. One cylinder was full of water and Gordon couldn’t get it to turn over. He kept working at it and working at it and it finally started. Well as they drove away that apple shot out of the exhaust pipe and a two-inch stream of water shot back about 20 feet!

The newlyweds lived on Queen Anne Hill while Marjy studied dietetics at the University of Washington and Gordon helped Gina Behrens manage the apartments. Then Gordon took an apprenticeship in the machine shop at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. For part of his apprenticeship he attended the University of Washington during the winter months and worked in the shipyard in the summer. Soon he was working full time and he quickly moved up the ladder. They bought their little farm on Dyes Inlet, at Fairview, and built the beautiful home they would live in for the rest of their lives.

Gordon and Marjy were down to earth and they loved the country life, but they had a quality about them that is hard to describe. They were rock solid, refined, wise and caring. They weren’t pretentious in any way, but they were a “notch above”. Lady and Gentleman. Salt of the earth. They couldn’t have children of their own and they adored their many nieces and nephews. They were the favorite and much-loved aunt and uncle who always had time to be amazed by accomplishments and to show their love.

Marjy & Gordon visiting the Empress Hotel

Gordon was a meticulous man with an enormous sense of humor and a joy for life. His passions were boating, fishing and gardening, with a little “inventing” thrown in. When he came across a rowboat pattern in Popular Mechanic, he built the boat. He liked it so much that he gave it to his brother George as a gift and then he built a second one for himself.

Donald Dunn told this story:

During the War Gordon invented a drill grinding machine. It would grind each drill so that a perfect curl would come off each side, something you couldn’t do by hand. They had a crew of women running this machine and about a year after it was put into use Gordon (the inventor) stepped up to one woman and tried to give her some advice on its operation. The woman looked at Gordon and said, “Young man, I’ve been running this thing for two weeks now and I don’t need any help.” Gordon just walked away.

Marjy was the sweetest person ever. She never said a bad word about anyone. In her living room was a figurine of three little monkeys, “Hear No Evil”, “See No Evil” and “Speak No Evil”. She was always happy, always upbeat, and always living life with a kind and loving heart. What a wonderful person!She loved cooking and gardening; and she was famous for her cookies, sponge cake and wonderful meals. For many, many years she was busy with Garden Club and was famous for her prize-winning cut flower arrangements. They both loved Airedale Terriers. Their yard was overflowing with flowers in bloom and a thriving vegetable garden. Often there was a white-faced Herford steer fattening in the field – from brother Duncan’s herd.

Gordon and Marjorie were a loving couple and much closer than most. Occasionally, Marjy would roll her eyes at Gordon, and at times he could be stern and sharp with her. In the early years she raised chickens and ducks. Her Banty hens had free range of the yard and roosted in the lower branches of the trees. She had to figure out where in the garden they had laid their eggs so she could gather them … and bake cinnamon bread. One bitter night she brought a batch of baby chicks into the basement for warmth. Gordon would have nothing to do with it. “Chickens in the House! You Don’t Bring Chickens into the House!!” But they were absolutely devoted to each other.

1957 – South Pender on South Pender Island. James Munro’s “Lady Eve” (left); Carolyn & Marjorie on Gordon’s “Morning Light” Motor-Sailer (right); and George and James on Float.

If you visited Marjorie and Gordon, you often ended up at the small table in their kitchen. Marjy would offer you cookies while Gordon made tea. Tea was a ritual and had to be done right. The kitchen was warm and cozy. In the early days, it was equipped with a small wood burning cook stove. Gordon built the gorgeous clear fir cabinetry, and Marjorie’s “Swedish” accents and accessories were scatter about. A little porcelain figurine of a black and white Airedale stood on the windowsill. Her nieces, Jean Hilstad Kukulan Reilly and Carol Hilstad Schwabe, remembered the following:

When Marjorie and Gordon married in 1935 they bought the property bordering ours at Fairview and became our dear neighbors. Our father, Chris Hilstad and Gordon always enjoyed each-others company and shared interest in their gardens, their stock, their oystering, and clam digging. Marjorie was a very talented homemaker and cook. Everyone remembers her lovely rolls, clam chowder, baked applesauce and wild blackberry jam. She also had a wonderful way with flower arrangements and natural bouquets.

Gordon had a great sense of humor and an amazing laugh. I always think of him as I “rock the teapot” just as he did to mix the tea properly. I was about 14 when Marjorie and Gordon were courting, and I thought their romance was so sweet as Gordon held his straw hat as a screen when he gave sweet Marjorie a kiss. They were a great pair – warm, generous and hospitable.

After a long career, Gordon retired as “second in command” of the Tool and Die shop. His niece, Elizabeth Munro Berry recalled:

My father, James Munro, once told me about Gordon’s job in the Tool and Die shop at the Bremerton Shipyard. He explained that Gordon had started as an apprentice and rose through the ranks, retiring as second in charge of the shop. My father then said in a soft voice that Gordon had been offered the job as head of the division, but he had turned it down because he and Marjorie had all they really needed and wanted, while the next man in line for the job had a young family and needed the money.

Marjorie and Gordon were fixtures in the family and we hardly noticed that they were aging. Side by side, they kept on gardening, puttering, and showering the family with affection. In their twilight days, they had a wide circle of close relatives. Among them was Marjorie’s niece, Gina Behrens, and her young son, Herman. They brought a great deal of joy into their lives. Herman and Gordon had a close bond and often clowned around and “raced” each other to their favorite chair. When they hit it at the same time, they went crashing over – chair and all – an elderly man and a toddler sprawled out on the floor!

Gordon’s health failed first and he spent a long stretch of time in a skilled nursing home in Silverdale. Marjy visited him every single day. She washed his comforter once a week and kept the bird feeder at his window refilled. Then Marjorie’s health suddenly failed. She was very sick and should have been in great pain – but she simply wasn’t. Gordon didn’t know she was sick, and no one had the heart to tell him, but he was in writhing pain until the minute she died.

Marjorie passed away on October 7^th, 2003 and Gordon followed on October 12^th, 2003.