Who’s Who: Herb Knudson, Knudson’s Surgical Appliance & Hospital Equipment

  • By Mike Benbow, Herald Writer
  • Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:02pm
  • BusinessEverett

After 70 years or so of working, Herb Knudson has boiled business down to its basic ingredient — helping people get what they need.

For customers at his former drugstore and later a medical supply business, it was finding the right product at the right price without having to leave town.

For his delivery boys, it was some mentoring and sometimes help getting through school.

And for folks down on their luck and sleeping in the doorway, there often would be a room for the night at a nearby motel.

That ends later this month for Knudson, 91, who has been operating Knudson’s Surgical Appliance &Hospital Equipment with his daughter Terri.

It will be the end of an era.

For more than 100 years, there’s been a Herb Knudson in a medical-related business in Everett. The original Herb, Herb’s father and Terri’s grandfather, started working at Everett’s City Drug at the age of 12 in 1903. He later bought his own pharmacy, the Riverside, and eventually bought City Drug.

Herb took over from his father, selling the drugstore in 1976 but keeping the hospital equipment business that had been added to the store. It’s at 2909 Hewitt Ave.

“It’s a heartbreak,” Knudson said of closing a business he loves. “I enjoy people. I made a lot of friends.”

He said his business was a bit of a dinosaur, eclipsed by large corporations that offer medical equipment and an array of services.

“In this particular business, we’re the last of it,” he said. “We’re the only ones.”

He said insurance companies and Medicare set most of the prices he can charge these days, and it isn’t enough. “They have their own prices, and a lot of times it’s below our costs,” he said.

Knudson said a lot of people came through the business over the years, many to use the postal substation inside. It’s among the oldest such postal stations in the West.

Dick Padovan, who for many years had an office near the Knudsons, enjoyed using the substation, but what he’ll miss most is the good service.

“I could always go there and find what I needed,” he said. “If they didn’t have it, they’d get it.”

Most of the items at the store have been sold. Last week, they were moving out some of the fixtures. But there still was the old oak-trimmed cash register with the giant keys that Herb’s dad purchased in 1921. There was also the 1901 scale and a giant safe from the early 1900s — installed with an 1885 anti-dynamite device.

Herb Knudson said he’s ready to retire, maybe do some gardening. But he said he will miss the people.

“Our motto was to take care of the people,” he said.

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