The Soundview secretaries

Published 9:00 pm Monday, August 16, 2004

Before it was Kimberly-Clark Corp., before it was Scott Paper Co., it was Soundview Pulp Co.

Before anyone talked about the notion of a family-friendly workplace, or how some of us spend more time at the office than home with loved ones, there were places where co-workers truly were just like family.

Before there was such a title as administrative assistant, there was the secretarial pool.

All the years between then and now disappeared in a moment, in a story told and a photograph shared, as women in their 70s and 80s gathered for iced tea and memories one recent afternoon at Charlotte Bowers’ Marysville home.

“Soundview Pulp, that’s where it all started,” said Bowers, 76, who worked as a secretary and receptionist at the Everett waterfront mill from 1949 until 1955.

For the past half-dozen years, former secretaries at the pulp mill have gathered for annual get-togethers. As the years creep up they’ve decided to make it a twice-a-year event. Sometimes husbands are invited, sometimes not. Even before their formal gatherings, threads of friendship kept them closely tied.

“We have so much fun, all we do is laugh and think about the old days,” Bowers said.

While it’s not an organized support group (too much fun for that) there’s no doubt that these women have been there for each other through life’s ups and downs, births to widowhood.

“Some have lost their mates. Another has a husband having surgery. These gals have become like sisters,” Bowers said.

A black-and-white picture in Bowers’ scrapbook shows a pretty young woman posing with a baby’s high chair. Helen McCollum, 86, smiled at the memory of the baby shower her pals in the secretarial pool had for her. “My daughter is 50 now,” the Everett woman said.

Rose Margaretich, at 88 the eldest of the group, said most of her friends left their jobs when they had children. A mother of twins who are now 66, Margaretich stayed on with Scott Paper until she was 62.

Looking at a wonderful snapshot of the secretaries’ baseball team taken long ago at Forest Park, Margaretich joked about a slight she’s never forgotten. “Why didn’t you let me play?” she asked her friends in a mock girlish voice.

“You just weren’t good enough, Rose,” quipped Lena Dire Rochon, 73. “You were our cheerleader.”

Rochon remembered joining the secretarial pool at about 19.

“You and Helen, you guys were in your 30s,” she said, looking at Margaretich. “I’ll never forget, we were talking about middle age, and I said I thought it started, oh, about 30. I thought you guys were going to kill me,” said Rochon as her longtime friends burst out laughing.

Others at the gathering at Bowers’ home were Betty Larsen Hammer, 72; Marge Lorenz Greenhalgh, 71; and Marie Gustavson Olson, 70. Another friend, Mary Neilsen, wasn’t there but is also part of the group, which held its big reunion this summer at Hammer’s cabin on Lake Riley near Arlington.

The friendships have lasted since their early working years, which for some began with shorthand and bookkeeping classes at Everett High School. Hammer started at Soundview at 17 when the school helped her land a job.

In some ways, life on the job wasn’t at all like office work today.

“Soundview was the most wonderful employer any of us ever had,” said Bowers, remembering afternoon coffee breaks in an upstairs dining room. “They always ordered a treat for us, restaurants’ specialties, and we girls would go downtown to pick it up.”

At Christmas, they received bonuses equal to a month’s salary. There were company parties, with their husbands included.

“We had baby showers and bridal showers, in our homes or sometimes at the company,” Bowers said. “It was a disappointment when Scott took over – no more parties.”

The Herald’s “Seems Like Yesterday” column noted on Sept. 21, 2001, that in 1951, “Red-letter headlines on the front page announced the proposed merger of Soundview Pulp Co. of Everett with Scott Paper Co. of Chester, Pa. With the merger was to come a paper mill north of the present pulp mill. Leo S. Burdon, Soundview vice president, said the size of the mill and the extent of its payroll would be extensive.”

Sitting in Bowers’ living room, the women could still name many of their bosses, among them Leo Burdon.

Hammer said she’ll never forget the day “Mr. Burdon said, ‘I need you to drive me to Sea-Tac.’ I was driving this big Chrysler and had never been there. I was just sweating,” she said.

“And Mr. (R.M.) Buckley,” Rochon said, “I was kind of afraid of him.”

Some things haven’t changed at all, including a healthy respect for the boss. What really endures is friendship, long past quitting time, long past retirement.

“We worked hard and played hard,” Margaretich said. “We’re just like a family.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or

muhlsteinjulie @herldnet.com.