Einar I. Aune

Einar I. Aune passed away at his home in Bellingham, Washington on August 26th, 2011. He was born on the Aune Farm in Norway in 1932 to Hulda and Kristoffer Ressem.  

Growing up on a farm, he and his six siblings learned at an early age what work was. He developed a strong work ethic that stayed with him throughout his life.  As a young child Einar experienced first-hand the WWII German occupation of Norway. The Germans held military training on the Aune Farm, took over the town’s schoolhouse, so that school during the war consisted of meeting at the public library for a few minutes each day to receive homework assignments. The Germans also took ownership of the only two working horses on the farm. When the horses were taken, Einar said this was the only time he saw his father cry.

As a young adult Einar was stationed in Germany for a year with Brigade #522, in order to fulfill the standard mandatory obligation to the Norwegian military. This was the last year that Norway sent soldiers to Germany.  

His next adventure was in the Norwegian Merchant Marines, with which he sailed for approximately two years. As a sailor he traveled to such far away places as the Middle East, South America, and Antarctica.  After leaving the Merchant Marines, he spent a winter logging in Sweden, but soon his desire to travel took the upper hand, and he decided to immigrate to Canada.

Once in Canada he rather quickly discovered that the English he had learned at sea didn't stretch so very far, and when in a café he always felt on the safe side by ordering the same thing as the customer at the next table.     After four years in various cities in Alberta and British Columbia, he immigrated to the United States. He settled in Los Angeles, where he met Ellen from Oslo, Norway, at the Norwegian Seaman's Church in San Pedro, California.   Ellen and Einar married, and a year later their son, Glenn, was born in Norway, followed by the birth of their daughter, Lynn, in California three years later.  In the early 1970’s the entire family moved to Norway with the intent of settling there permanently.  It was easy to find work in Norway, but property for building a home was not so easy to come by, hence the family returned to the U.S. a year and a half later and settled in Washington, a state known for having similar scenery to Norway and with a large Scandinavian community.   Einar and Ellen had a home built in Seattle and enjoyed living there for 22 years. With both increasing building activity and traffic congestion, they decided to retire someplace else and bought acreage outside of Bellingham, Washington in the late 1980’s where they subsequently had a new home built after Einar retired in 1994.

Einar worked for over 30 years as a welder and fitter in the steel industry in Canada, Norway, and the United States. He worked mainly for two companies, and those companies won work bids from different states, including building beams for New York’s World Trade Center; the making of a platform for the Space Shuttle Program in Cape Canaveral, Florida; the creation of a metal house for the U.S. Coast Guard for use in Nome, Alaska; and did many jobs for various buildings around the Puget Sound area, including numerous hospitals on ‘Pill Hill’ in Seattle. He was a true specialist in the building of handrail and stairs. One of his final jobs was on Microsoft founder Bill Gate's private residence in Medina, Washington. Einar was well known for his workmanship, his attention to detail, and for doing things right the first time. Much of his work can be seen around the Seattle area today.

Einar enjoyed exploring and if there was a hill, he always wanted to be on top of that hill. He enjoyed traveling and visited Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Canada, as well as California in recent years.   Einar had a thirst for knowledge and was a naturally curious person who was fascinated by science, history, current events, present-day technologies, as well as the possibilities of what technology held for the future.

Einar liked talking to people, and he always had interesting stories, or information about something that he had just learned about, to share.  He was self taught on the computer, and thoroughly enjoyed staying in contact with family in Norway via Skype, e-mail, and keeping up on what was going on in Norway, the US, and the world by perusing the headlines of various Internet newspapers worldwide. Einar somehow always knew how something worked, and if it was broken he knew how to fix it.  He was a jack-of-all-trades.

Einar had a soft spot for all creatures great and small. In his final weeks he and his daughter often spent time sitting quietly outside watching and marveling at all of the ants, potato bugs, spiders, and other little creatures of our world.

He enjoyed hiking and for over 10 years he spent hundreds and hundreds of hours hiking and building trails on Stewart Mountain, located in the foothills of Mt Baker. Einar said he did it because it was so much fun. He loved to be outdoors and to stay busy. Even as his illness robbed him of his strength, he made every effort to get outside and walk, even if it was just around his driveway. He did as much as he was able to do every single day of his life. He never gave up.

Einar loved his family, and they are grateful that in the final weeks he said on several occasions that he felt he had had a good and interesting life. He felt satisfied. Einar is survived by, and will be so very dearly missed by, his family: Ellen (wife), Lynn (daughter), Glenn (son), Alice (daughter-in-law), Inge (brother), Ilse (sister-in-law), and numerous nieces, nephews, and extended family in Norway.

He is preceded in death by his parents Hulda & Kristoffer; his brothers Hans & Olav; his sisters Kirsten, Åsta, & Else; brother-in-laws Per, Erling, Alf, & Lars; sister-in-law Solbjørg, and nephew Anders.

Hvil i fred, Einar. (Rest in Peace)

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