It was just “Tolly”. Mr. Tollefson if you want to be formal, but he liked to just be called “Tolly”. Just figured we should keep referring to him as he liked. It would have been his birthday today. Jan 24. I was lucky enough to get to throw him his 100th birthday party.
One great guy! And, reasons why I own a Tolly!
Tollycraft Corp. founder 'Tolly' Tollefson dies at age 100
By Barbara LaBoe / The Daily News The Daily News Online | Posted: Friday, May 13, 2011 8:10 pm
R.M. "Tolly" Tollefson, who turned a hobby into a Kelso company that employed 260 people and produced "the Cadillac of yachts," died May 6 in Port Ludlow, Wash. He was 100.
"He was very, very smart — brilliant, really," recalled Longview's Eydie Ramshaw, who worked for Tollefson at Tollycraft Corp. for 27 years. "He was on the floor all the time and very good-natured, very happy, always giving compliments."
A big group former employees and yacht enthusiasts gathered for Tollefson's 100th birthday party in January. All of his original management staff was there, some traveling from as far away as Arizona, Ramshaw said.
He was frail but still alert and had a great memory, Ramshaw said.
Tollefson was born in Idaho. His family later moved to Oregon, where he built model boats and worked at a lake resort near Medford, Ore. In the 1940s, he moved to Kelso and purchased an old mill and lumber yard. When that burned down in 1952, Tollefson used the insurance money to turn his hobby of building custom boats for friends into a new business.
He started with 10 employees and expanded as the reputation of his boats grew. While Tollycraft was not one of the largest yacht manufacturers, its boats were prized for their quality and attention to detail. Owners have formed several "Tollycraft Clubs" to share their enthusiasm for the boats.
"It's kind of a labor of love," Tollefson told the Daily News in 1987. "I had no intention of building a business the size it is today."
"It was the quality and the design," Ramshaw said of the boats' popularity. "Everything was hand-built, and it was nothing but top notch."
Seattle naval architect Ed Monk, who helped design the yachts with Tollefson, called them the "Cadillac of yachts" in 1987 when the company was sold. At the time, the company's premiere 61-footer sold for $750,000.
Ramshaw was one of the first 10 women Tollefson hired in the 1960s, declaring that women were more particular about quality, she said.
Tollefson began his second retirement in 1987 (his first didn't take) in Port Ludlow. The company, which had some rocky times and tax problems in the 1990s, closed for good in 1998.
There are plans for memorials to Tollefson at several Tollycraft boat clubs, including possibly scattering some of his ashes in Kelso, according to the boating website Three Sheets Northwest. Ramshaw hasn't heard the details yet.
The workers were like one big family, she said, and that's why they kept in touch with their former boss decades after he retired.
"It was just really special," Ramshaw recalled of her time at Tollycraft. "We all felt special and knew were building quality. I loved that job. I'd still be there if I could - and I'm almost 70 years old."
:lol:
Saw that, but figured Mr.Tolley never imagined
