Jim Kilian developed his love of water at Kayak Point

Published 8:42 pm Saturday, May 22, 2010

From his childhood at what’s now Kayak Point County Park to a seagoing career and plans to retire aboard a 38-foot sailboat, Jim Kilian loved the water.

“He was a water guy,” said Phil Kilian, one of the Stanwood man’s two brothers.

In his house overlooking Port Susan, near the waterfront park, Phil Kilian and his younger brother Mike shared stories and pictures of their older brother.

One old photo shows Jim Kilian — called Jamie as a child — alone in a small sailboat.

“When he was about 13, he built this little sailboat,” said Mike Kilian, who lives next-door to Phil.

James Fraser Kilian died April 29. He was 75.

He is survived by brothers Philip and Mike and their wives, both named Judy, and by three nieces. Jim Kilian was divorced and had no children.

His last years were spent at the Warm Beach Senior Community, where he moved as the effects of his Parkinson’s disease advanced. The illness ended his retirement dream. He had nearly finished building a 38-foot Ingrid-design sailboat, which he planned to sail to the South Pacific and later live aboard.

Jim Kilian was born Dec. 10, 1934. He was the first child of Arthur and Margaret Kilian, who founded and operated Kayak Point Resort. During the summers, they rented out cabins and boats, and sold supplies to picnic crowds and fishermen at their beach-side store. They lived in back of the store during the summer. The rest of the year was spent in what they called “the house on the hill,” built by Arthur Kilian. Now part of the park, the former family home is now available to rent.

In the early 1900s, Heinrich Kilian, Arthur Kilian’s father, bought 5 acres at Port Susan for $600, according to a Kayak Point Resort history written by Phil Kilian. Back then, there was no road to the property. Before the days of the resort, Heinrich’s family traveled to their “Kilian Camp” by the early Mosquito Fleet boats.

Mike and Phil Kilian remember their sunny childhood, with days spent playing on the beach. “We were barefooted all summer,” Phil Kilian said. “We’d make rafts of logs and driftwood, and a sheet for a sail.”

Jim Kilian graduated from Twin City High School in 1953 and studied electrical engineering at the University of Washington. He joined the Army, serving mostly in Germany, and was part of a ski patrol unit. An expert skier, he later became a member of the Billiken Ski Club at Crystal Mountain. He also enjoyed windsurfing.

Jim Kilian put his love of the sea to work. For many years, he was an electronics technician and radio operator on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ships, based in Seattle. The job took him from the Arctic to South America and West Africa. Later, he did similar work on a liquid petroleum gas tanker, which carried fuel form Indonesia to Japan.

Despite his globe-trotting, he’d return to see family near Kayak Point. Phil Kilian said his daughters remember their uncle as an interesting man who was generous with gifts.

He lived to see his boyhood home become the park enjoyed by thousands of visitors year-round. When his three sons didn’t want to operate a resort, Arthur Kilian sold it to Kiert Smith in the late 1950s. Smith operated it for two years before selling the property to the Richfield Oil Company, which later merged with the Atlantic Oil Co.

A “Save Port Susan” legal fight eventually halted a planned oil refinery, according to Phil Kilian’s history. Snohomish County bought the property for the park in 1972.

The Kilian family couldn’t have been happier. Again, crowds of beachgoers flocked to the magnificent spot.

When they think of their brother, a quiet man, Phil and Mike Kilian always remember his love of the water.

“He would love to have sailed the world,” Phil Kilian said.

Family and friends of Jim Kilian will gather to remember him at 2 p.m. June 13 at 16604 Marine Drive in Stanwood.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.