Celebration of life for Earl Hanson Jan. 9 at Poulsbo First Lutheran Church

Published 11:43 am Tuesday, January 6, 2015

POULSBO — Earl Hanson lived a full life: World War II veteran. Planner and estimator at Keyport. Skiing instructor. Past president of the Sons of Norway and the Poulsbo Historical Society. Official greeter at the Poulsbo First Lutheran Church’s annual Lutefisk Dinner. Host of countless visitors from Norway and Sapmi (the land of the Saami people). Husband of 61 years. Father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

And yet, in his 91 years of life, one experience stood out to him in a unique way, having fed his early moral conscience and sense of social justice.

Hanson, who was born on Bainbridge Island, was the son of Norwegian immigrants. Most of his friends were Bainbridge-born children of Japanese immigrants. He and his pals were Americans all. So that day in March 1942 was painful to him, the day he walked with his buddy Jerry Nakata to the Eagledale ferry dock, where the Nakatas and other islanders of Japanese ancestry would start their journey to Manzanar.

“It was something he never forgot. It was a very sad time for him,” Hanson’s daughter, Earlene Clark, said on Jan. 5. “They considered themselves Americans. To him, it didn’t make sense that a friend who was American like he was was being sent to an internment camp. So, he was very involved with anything to do with the [Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial] or anything to do to honor them. He thought it was important to honor them.”

More stories like that are expected to be shared of Hanson, for whom a celebration of life is scheduled on Jan. 9, 11 a.m., at First Lutheran Church in Poulsbo. Hanson passed away on Dec. 24, surrounded by his family. He was 91.

Hanson was born on June 29, 1923 on Bainbridge Island to Gunnar and Ingeborg Hanson. According to family friend Gerald Elfendahl, Hanson grew up in Eagledale and graduated from Bainbridge High School in 1940.

During World War II, Hanson served as an Army staff sergeant in Okinawa and Korea, and helped build Kimpo Air Force Base near Seoul, Korea. He and Norma Bernice Anderson of Poulsbo married in 1953. They settled in Poulsbo, raised a family, got involved in the community. Hanson retired from Keyport in 1979, after 29 years in civil service.

Hanson volunteered at the First Lutheran Church, Sons of Norway, and the Poulsbo Historical Society. He was an avid skier. And he and his friends were friends for life.

Hanson and his buddy, Hal Hoover, a Poulsbo educator who served as mayor of Poulsbo, taught skiing together for 32 years in North Kitsap, Clark said.

Elfendahl recalled, “Earl and his Bainbridge High classmates were very close and met every Thursday morning at Central Market — especially Hal Champeness, Jerry Nakata, Jim Johannson, Sylvan Moench and others. He helped celebrate Kay Nakao’s 95th birthday last month at Sakai School.” In addition, Hanson and Champeness were regular speakers at the annual anniversary programs at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.

DEVOTED TO THE CULTURE
The Hanson home was, for many years, an unofficial Saami consulate, hosting visitors from Sapmi and Norway.

The Saami — the indigenous people of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia — long faced persecution and assimilation efforts not unlike that of America’s indigenous peoples, and for a long time many Saami identified as Norwegian to avoid discrimination.

“Growing up, my mother did not know she was Saami,” Clark said. Her parents “just wanted to be Norwegians. They didn’t talk about their heritage at all. Then, in the 1970s, a woman from Norway knocked on the front door.”

The visitor was researching for a thesis on the Saami that had immigrated to Poulsbo. She shared information she had with Mrs. Hanson and “she found relatives she didn’t know existed.”

Mrs. Hanson made contact with newly discovered relatives, many of whom visited Poulsbo. And in 1998, the Hansons hosted a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the year that 100 Saami reindeer herders and their families, and nearly 600 reindeer, made the passage from Sapmi to Alaska to introduce reindeer herding to the Inuit as an alternative food source.

By the way, one of Mrs. Hanson’s cousins was Andrew Baer, a Saami herder known as the Arctic Moses, who in 1935 moved a herd of more than 2,300 reindeer to the Mackenzie River Delta in Kittigazuit, Northwest Territories. He is interred in the Poulsbo Cemetery near other local Saami families that moved here from Alaska.

Clark describes the Hanson home as idyllic: on some acreage at the crest of a hill on the end of Liberty Road, with a trout-bearing stream and a huge vegetable garden. “The house was always open to anyone,” Clark said. “There was kind of an open door. There was always plenty of food.”

Food might include lutefisk, that oft-joked about cultural dish made of dried, preserved cod that has been reconstituted and cooked and is usually served with lefse, meatballs, peas and potatoes. Hanson loved it, Clark said.

Wearing his bright red blazer and Norwegian tie, he was a fixture at the Poulsbo First Lutheran Church’s annual Lutefisk Dinner. Likewise at the Poulsbo Historical Museum.

“He was one of the founders of the historical society and served as president,” said Judy Driscoll, a historical society volunteer and author. “He rarely missed a meeting. He had a good sense of humor and loved greeting people. With his bright red blazer and Norwegian tie, people would stop and get their picture taken with him. He knew everybody by name. He will be missed.”

Clark said of her father, “He lived life to its fullest and with no regrets.”

Hanson is survived by his wife of 61 years, Norma; daughters, Earlene (Neil) Clark, Laurene (Meredith) Musick, and Norene (David) Reeves; grandchildren, Janae (Kyle) Hansen, Mathew Clark, Amanda Clark, Mikal Reeves, Jeffrey Reeves and Ingrid Reeves; and great-grandchildren, Wyatt Hansen and Landon Reeves.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to First Lutheran Church, Sons of Norway or the Poulsbo Historical Society.

Sign the online guest book for the family at www.cookfamilyfuneralhome.com.