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AWB Legends: Neal Fosseen |
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Written On: November/December 2004 |
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Written By: by Paul Schlienz |
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Spokane’s Native Son Leaves a Great Legacy
Neal Fosseen — one of the towering figures in the history of AWB — is gone, but not forgotten.
Fosseen, who chaired the board of directors of AWB’s forerunner, the Association of Washington Industries (AWI), from 1954 to 1955, died on July 30 in Spokane. He was 95 and had been incapacitated by a stroke for the previous four years.
Prior to his stroke, Fosseen lived an incredibly active and productive life. Over the course of nearly a century, he was involved in business, politics, the military and community affairs. Among the many hats he wore, Fosseen will probably be best remembered as one of Spokane’s greatest civic leaders.
Born in Yakima on Nov. 27, 1908, Fosseen was only eight when his family moved to Spokane. Always a high achiever, Fosseen joined the Boy Scouts and, at age 12, achieved the amazing feat of becoming the youngest Eagle Scout in the United States after only eleven months in the program. Scouting remained an abiding interest throughout Fosseen’s life. Ultimately, he would serve as the Inland Empire Council’s president and on its executive board. Today the Scouts honor his contributions with a Camp Fosseen.
Fosseen graduated from Spokane’s Lewis & Clark High School in 1925. He then crossed the Cascades and attended the University of Washington from where he graduated in 1929.
Unlike many other newly minted college graduates who were unable to find work as the Great Depression began, Fosseen was fortunate to be employed by Washington Brick, Lime & Sewer Pipe Company, his family’s business, where he had worked on and off since 1923. By 1938, he was president of the firm. By then, he was also a married man, having wed Helen Witherspoon in 1936. The couple would ultimately have two sons.
Prior to World War II, Fosseen served in the U.S. Marine Corps reserve. In 1942, following Pearl Harbor, he went on active duty as a lieutenant colonel and spent the war in the South Pacific where he helped fight the Japanese.
“Neal was part of America’s greatest generation — a group that most of are just beginning to realize what an important contribution they made to world peace and in fighting tyranny,” AWB President Don Brunell said.
Fosseen’s ties to the military were enduring even after he returned home victorious from the war in 1945. His legacy can be seen each spring when the Fosseen Award is given to the Spokane-area military unit that contributes the most to serving the community.
Fosseen’s generosity of spirit was also evident in the work he put into building an international friendship with his former enemies — the Japanese — after the war. It is largely because of his efforts that Spokane enjoys a sister city relationship with Nishinomiya, Japan. A room is named for Fosseen at Spokane’s Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, where Japanese students are immersed in the English language and American culture. Forty-one years after the end of the war, Fosseen was personally honored by Emperor Hirohito for his work in building the sister city relationship between Spokane and Nishinomiya in addition to protecting Japanese-Americans in eastern Washington.
Following the war, Fosseen returned to the presidency of his family’s business. After the company was sold in 1957, Fosseen served as a bank executive and on a variety of boards, including a stint as Gonzaga University regent.
Fosseen’s career took an unexpected turn in 1960, when a group of business leaders approached him about running for mayor of Spokane.
“I thought to myself ‘How I am I going to get out of this thing?’,” Fosseen later recalled.
This reluctant politician, however, accepted his “draft notice” when he realized other business leaders were already running for city council seats as part of a pro-business slate of candidates.
Fosseen and his allies took Spokane by storm in the May 1960 local election. As mayor for eight years, his greatest achievements include a revitalized downtown Spokane and building a modern Spokane International Airport.
Even after leaving the mayoralty, Fosseen’s influence in Spokane was strong as ever. One of his major contributions was heading the group of business leaders that would eventually bring a world’s fair — Expo ’74 — to Spokane. The fair’s greatest legacy was removing the tangled rail yards that obscured the beauty of Spokane Falls. Fosseen was personally involved in the negotiations with the Great Northern Railway to secure this property for the fair. After the fair, the site around the falls became Riverfront Park, a focal point for Spokane and one of the most beautiful urban parks in Washington.
Named mayor emeritus by the Spokane City Council in 1968, Foseen remained involved in civic affairs for the remainder of the 20th century. He traveled the world, swam, played squash, walked for exercise, and enjoyed his three grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Fosseen remained active in AWB, too, and was a strong financial supporter of the Business Week program for high school students.
“We will miss him greatly!” Brunell remarked shortly after Fosseen’s passing on July 30.
Fosseen’s legacy, however, remains with us, especially in Spokane — a city that was utterly transformed thanks to his influence.
“Reader, if you seek his memorial, look about you," says the inscription on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren in London’s magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, which Wren designed.
Perhaps a marker in honor of Neal Fosseen with the same words should stand in Spokane’s Riverfront Park, which would not exist were it not for his determination. He was a man who, indeed, made a difference and left the world a better place.
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