MEETING RECAP
The History of the Port of Tacoma
By Wendy Jo McGowanSunday, September 24, 2023
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The History of the Port of Tacoma
Wendy McGowan
I understand that an abundance of “Pun”ishments from none other than Lakewood Rotary’s “pun”ctilious punster, John Magnuson, went out over the internet recently. Apparently, the “pun”dit emailed ten puns to his favorite Rotary friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did!
However, I noticed that our bombastic punster was present on Zoom today as the melody from Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” came over the sound system while Prez Mary Horn stepped up to the podium. Sharply at 12:30 p.m. she rang the dinner bell, calling us to some semblance of order.
Punster Carl acknowledged: Veronica Bronkema was only a whiskey maker, but Carl loved her still.
Chris Kimball was summoned to give the invocation. Then Rob Erb was asked to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. President Mary thanked everyone for joining our Rotary Family, then going on to those that make our every meeting possible: Wynn Hoffman, Terry Roarke, Rick Selden, James Osundwa and Rob Erb. The president also welcomed the Zoomers.
Lakewood Police Chief, Patrick Smith, announced, “A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it!”
Mother Mary let us know that Walt Richardson, a true professional, was taking the photographs you see here and that Wendy “Wordsmith” McGowan would be writing this very epistle. John Lowney tended “the Cookie Jar”, Chuck Hellar gathered up the contributions to the Paul Harris Foundation, and Barlow Buescher manned the $2.00 table.
Two fish swimming in Clover Creek swam into a brick wall. Mary “The Marlin” turned to her swimming partner and said, “Dam!”
Today’s guests were honored: Jim Weinand introduced his wife, Jennie and Cat Frederickson acquainted us with her friends James and Auntie Laura. A visiting Rotarian, Rod Koon was welcomed as our guest speaker and then Mary honored our District VIPs: PDG Gordy Quick and Greg Horn, DGE Bill McGregor, DGN Tony Camoroda and AG Bill Potter.
Returning from a recent medical seminar held on an Alaskan island, Dr. Peter Marsh noted, “I thought I saw an eye doctor, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.”
The Puffins were then summoned to the podium. There was a gaggle of them today. Mary announced that she is handing over a duty to the group. Apparently, it came up at a recent board meeting that it is important that each time a Rotarian speaks during a meeting it is necessary that the speaker use a microphone. Members have complained that often times it is difficult to hear what is being said.
John Lowney offered a good idea to the board members: Why not have the Puffins assume this task? It will accomplish a couple of things: not only will everyone be able to hear the speaker, but the Puffins will become familiar with the membership. The Puffin will now hand the mic to the member who wishes to speak; the Puffin will make sure the mic is on and say to the member he is handing it to: “The mic is on” as he or she hands the mic to the speaker. No more fumbling with the mic or testing it out to see if it is on or not. The Puffins will now spread out, taking his or her seat so that the entire dining room is covered by Puffins.
Nice idea, John! Just remember: No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery!
When President Mary called on me for The Sunshine Report I was unhappy to tell the membership that longtime Rotarian, Gordy Quick, has been diagnosed with cancer. Gordy is at home, while his doctors continue to run further tests. Gordy’s wife, Juanita, encourages us to call Gordy as Rotary has always been such an important part of Gordy’s life. I also updated the members present that Dave Covey is moving in with his daughter, Angie. You can find Dave’s address on dacDB, should you like to send a note.
The president then asked if there were any announcements. Jan Gee updated us on a community event being held on Halloween called Trunks or Treat. Participating volunteers will be on hand with their car trunks filled with candy at the Community Center next to the Baptist Church for young Lakewood Trick or Treaters. Rotary will be on hand hoping to sign up “the very littlest ones” to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Barlow Buescher and Greg Rediske reminded us that the coming year is the 30th Anniversary of the Lakewood Community Foundation and asked us to vote to continue to budget anything over $2,000 in the coming year. This past year we donated $37,000.
Last, but not least, on President Mary’s agenda: Cookie Jar Contributions. Chris Kimball forked over a tidy amount (which I didn’t get) for receiving Best Import Award and 1st Place Peoples Choice Award for his “hot” motorcycle. Mark Blanchard offered $117.00 for his September 18th anniversary. Mark noted that Greg and Mary Horn need to follow suit.
Mark Edgecomb fessed up that he and Nicole just returned from London. They visited The Lakes District, as well. While in London Mark returned to Herrods (where he worked many years ago) and picked up a little something for Prez Mary: Butter Biscuits with Strawberry and Crème filling. Yum! Mark paid dearly, but I didn’t get the amount.
Seeing that I sat next to Mark at lunch where he regaled me with his adventures in London, one of which was a “dip” in the River Thames. Really? Now, Mark, if you were in Paris and jumped in the river you’d be in Seine.
Enough silly puns. We next had one of the most interesting programs I’ve heard in quite sometime. Rod Koon, from the Port of Tacoma, was born in Tacoma, attended Bellarmine Prep and went on to graduate from Stanford University. He is a member of Sunrise Rotary and handles their website and public imagery. Rod plays acoustic and electric guitar with a classic rock band and is a devout Beatles fan with a personalized license plate “LetItBe.” He was a regular at EFN repacking food but when COVID hit, he gathered a couple of fellow musicians and played music on his front yard on Saturday afternoons, accepting donations for EFN. Rod started at the Port of Tacoma in 1983 and held positions in communications, marketing and community relations. He retired in October 2021 as the Senior Communications Manager. He then authored a book about the Port of Tacoma available for purchase. Thus he can recite from memory an encyclopedia of facts and figures about the Port from its inception until today. Rod and Charlie Hyde (a long time Lakewood Rotary member for the newbies) played tennis 50+ years ago and hadn’t seen each other in about 50 years until this meeting.
I was enthralled with the zillions of details Rod conveyed through his discourse and the magnificent photos he presented (many of which were taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s). I captured some I share here.
Pierce County voters approved formation of the Port of Tacoma on November 5, 1918, 110 years ago. The first Port Commission comprised of a banker, a longshore official and a fruit and dairy farmer. The port started with 240 acres of land in the Tacoma Tide Flats and today boasts about half of the 5,000 acres which comprises the tide flats. Various operations now employ more than 42,000 people and produces about $3 billion in labor income. Rod showed a video clip that featured the old overhead conveyor system of moving pallets of product out of the warehouse, making a 90 degree turn over to the ship, and lowered under the docks. People manually unloaded the pallets and put them on the ship. It took thousands of manhours to load a ship. I noticed no hard hats on those people unloading the pallets.
The first vessel to call at the port was the Edmone on March 25, 1921 to pick up lumber to take to Japan. Today, the port is one of the fourth largest container gateways in the United States and a major gateway for trade with Asia and Alaska. New cranes recently installed are taller than Godzilla and just second in height to the Space Needle.
Rod told a great story about a truck driver in the 1950’s delivering his truck for of product to be unloaded off his truck and put on the ship. He saw how inefficient this was and started to think that maybe a better idea was to just load the truck onto the ship. Then he thought why not just the trailer of the truck. That led to his idea of making a separate container on the truck that could be loaded onto the ship. He developed this idea and revolutionized shipping with containers that hold anything and everything that is loaded onto a ship for delivery elsewhere.
If anyone missed this great presentation, go to https://www.portoftacoma.com and click on the history link for a wonderful compilation of the last 100 years and a peek into the future. Thank you, Rod, for this vivid mental image you provided us. We hope you return.
Upcoming Events
October 12 - Rotary on Tap will recognize World Polio Day. Save the date. Details to come.
October 17 - Board Meeting
October 20 - Tacoma South Rotary Club's Annual Mini-Golf Tournament
Wendy McGowan
I understand that an abundance of “Pun”ishments from none other than Lakewood Rotary’s “pun”ctilious punster, John Magnuson, went out over the internet recently. Apparently, the “pun”dit emailed ten puns to his favorite Rotary friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did!
However, I noticed that our bombastic punster was present on Zoom today as the melody from Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” came over the sound system while Prez Mary Horn stepped up to the podium. Sharply at 12:30 p.m. she rang the dinner bell, calling us to some semblance of order.
Punster Carl acknowledged: Veronica Bronkema was only a whiskey maker, but Carl loved her still.
Chris Kimball was summoned to give the invocation. Then Rob Erb was asked to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. President Mary thanked everyone for joining our Rotary Family, then going on to those that make our every meeting possible: Wynn Hoffman, Terry Roarke, Rick Selden, James Osundwa and Rob Erb. The president also welcomed the Zoomers.
Lakewood Police Chief, Patrick Smith, announced, “A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it!”
Mother Mary let us know that Walt Richardson, a true professional, was taking the photographs you see here and that Wendy “Wordsmith” McGowan would be writing this very epistle. John Lowney tended “the Cookie Jar”, Chuck Hellar gathered up the contributions to the Paul Harris Foundation, and Barlow Buescher manned the $2.00 table.
Two fish swimming in Clover Creek swam into a brick wall. Mary “The Marlin” turned to her swimming partner and said, “Dam!”
Today’s guests were honored: Jim Weinand introduced his wife, Jennie and Cat Frederickson acquainted us with her friends James and Auntie Laura. A visiting Rotarian, Rod Koon was welcomed as our guest speaker and then Mary honored our District VIPs: PDG Gordy Quick and Greg Horn, DGE Bill McGregor, DGN Tony Camoroda and AG Bill Potter.
Returning from a recent medical seminar held on an Alaskan island, Dr. Peter Marsh noted, “I thought I saw an eye doctor, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.”
The Puffins were then summoned to the podium. There was a gaggle of them today. Mary announced that she is handing over a duty to the group. Apparently, it came up at a recent board meeting that it is important that each time a Rotarian speaks during a meeting it is necessary that the speaker use a microphone. Members have complained that often times it is difficult to hear what is being said.
John Lowney offered a good idea to the board members: Why not have the Puffins assume this task? It will accomplish a couple of things: not only will everyone be able to hear the speaker, but the Puffins will become familiar with the membership. The Puffin will now hand the mic to the member who wishes to speak; the Puffin will make sure the mic is on and say to the member he is handing it to: “The mic is on” as he or she hands the mic to the speaker. No more fumbling with the mic or testing it out to see if it is on or not. The Puffins will now spread out, taking his or her seat so that the entire dining room is covered by Puffins.
Nice idea, John! Just remember: No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery!
When President Mary called on me for The Sunshine Report I was unhappy to tell the membership that longtime Rotarian, Gordy Quick, has been diagnosed with cancer. Gordy is at home, while his doctors continue to run further tests. Gordy’s wife, Juanita, encourages us to call Gordy as Rotary has always been such an important part of Gordy’s life. I also updated the members present that Dave Covey is moving in with his daughter, Angie. You can find Dave’s address on dacDB, should you like to send a note.
The president then asked if there were any announcements. Jan Gee updated us on a community event being held on Halloween called Trunks or Treat. Participating volunteers will be on hand with their car trunks filled with candy at the Community Center next to the Baptist Church for young Lakewood Trick or Treaters. Rotary will be on hand hoping to sign up “the very littlest ones” to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Barlow Buescher and Greg Rediske reminded us that the coming year is the 30th Anniversary of the Lakewood Community Foundation and asked us to vote to continue to budget anything over $2,000 in the coming year. This past year we donated $37,000.
Last, but not least, on President Mary’s agenda: Cookie Jar Contributions. Chris Kimball forked over a tidy amount (which I didn’t get) for receiving Best Import Award and 1st Place Peoples Choice Award for his “hot” motorcycle. Mark Blanchard offered $117.00 for his September 18th anniversary. Mark noted that Greg and Mary Horn need to follow suit.
Mark Edgecomb fessed up that he and Nicole just returned from London. They visited The Lakes District, as well. While in London Mark returned to Herrods (where he worked many years ago) and picked up a little something for Prez Mary: Butter Biscuits with Strawberry and Crème filling. Yum! Mark paid dearly, but I didn’t get the amount.
Seeing that I sat next to Mark at lunch where he regaled me with his adventures in London, one of which was a “dip” in the River Thames. Really? Now, Mark, if you were in Paris and jumped in the river you’d be in Seine.
Enough silly puns. We next had one of the most interesting programs I’ve heard in quite sometime. Rod Koon, from the Port of Tacoma, was born in Tacoma, attended Bellarmine Prep and went on to graduate from Stanford University. He is a member of Sunrise Rotary and handles their website and public imagery. Rod plays acoustic and electric guitar with a classic rock band and is a devout Beatles fan with a personalized license plate “LetItBe.” He was a regular at EFN repacking food but when COVID hit, he gathered a couple of fellow musicians and played music on his front yard on Saturday afternoons, accepting donations for EFN. Rod started at the Port of Tacoma in 1983 and held positions in communications, marketing and community relations. He retired in October 2021 as the Senior Communications Manager. He then authored a book about the Port of Tacoma available for purchase. Thus he can recite from memory an encyclopedia of facts and figures about the Port from its inception until today. Rod and Charlie Hyde (a long time Lakewood Rotary member for the newbies) played tennis 50+ years ago and hadn’t seen each other in about 50 years until this meeting.
I was enthralled with the zillions of details Rod conveyed through his discourse and the magnificent photos he presented (many of which were taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s). I captured some I share here.
Pierce County voters approved formation of the Port of Tacoma on November 5, 1918, 110 years ago. The first Port Commission comprised of a banker, a longshore official and a fruit and dairy farmer. The port started with 240 acres of land in the Tacoma Tide Flats and today boasts about half of the 5,000 acres which comprises the tide flats. Various operations now employ more than 42,000 people and produces about $3 billion in labor income. Rod showed a video clip that featured the old overhead conveyor system of moving pallets of product out of the warehouse, making a 90 degree turn over to the ship, and lowered under the docks. People manually unloaded the pallets and put them on the ship. It took thousands of manhours to load a ship. I noticed no hard hats on those people unloading the pallets.
The first vessel to call at the port was the Edmone on March 25, 1921 to pick up lumber to take to Japan. Today, the port is one of the fourth largest container gateways in the United States and a major gateway for trade with Asia and Alaska. New cranes recently installed are taller than Godzilla and just second in height to the Space Needle.
Rod told a great story about a truck driver in the 1950’s delivering his truck for of product to be unloaded off his truck and put on the ship. He saw how inefficient this was and started to think that maybe a better idea was to just load the truck onto the ship. Then he thought why not just the trailer of the truck. That led to his idea of making a separate container on the truck that could be loaded onto the ship. He developed this idea and revolutionized shipping with containers that hold anything and everything that is loaded onto a ship for delivery elsewhere.
If anyone missed this great presentation, go to https://www.portoftacoma.com and click on the history link for a wonderful compilation of the last 100 years and a peek into the future. Thank you, Rod, for this vivid mental image you provided us. We hope you return.
Upcoming Events
October 12 - Rotary on Tap will recognize World Polio Day. Save the date. Details to come.
October 17 - Board Meeting
October 20 - Tacoma South Rotary Club's Annual Mini-Golf Tournament
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