Tow trucks recently lined several downtown Everett streets, a testament to how Tom Nisson spent his life.
Companies all over the Puget Sound region dispatched trucks and drivers out of respect for a longtime competitor. Nisson, an Edmonds resident, was the founder of Day and Nite Towing in north Seattle.
“Words can’t describe Tom. He was the man. I worked for the guy 10 years, and I loved him,” Jeff McCaulley of Seattle said at Nisson’s funeral Feb. 15.
The service concluded with a convoy of trucks from Day and Nite’s fleet and nearly a dozen other towing companies. It was a noisy celebration of Nisson’s lifetime of toil and entrepreneurship.
Thomas Joseph Nisson died Feb. 11. He was 68.
Nisson is survived by his dear friend and partner of 12 years, Hildegard LaRoche of Edmonds; his daughter and son-in-law, Dawnell and Greg Kreider, of Bow; grandchildren Cassaundra, Gavin, Carrissa and Briauna; sisters Harriett Newtson, Sonia Chappell and Linda Barrett, all of Redmond, Ore.; and his former wife Maureen Van Hoyt of Sedro-Woolley.
He also leaves the LaRouche family, Michael, Martin and Alan, and their children.
“You lived life with gusto,” said Newtson, his eldest sister, in a program honoring her brother at his service. “You worked too hard and played hard.”
Ibraheem Juden was just 14 when he started working for Nisson, who at the time owned Tom’s Shell gas station on northeast 45th Street in Seattle.
“My dad knew him, and he gave a guy a job. He had a tough skin, but he had a heart,” said Juden, who now runs his own car lot and tow company. “I always think, ‘How would Tom do it?’ “
Nisson was born in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 19, 1938, to Harry and Nellie Marie Nisson. The first of four children, he graduated from Taft High School in Oregon and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Soon after his military service, he moved to Seattle. He and his wife, Maureen, worked together at the Shell station and later when he started Day and Nite Towing.
Van Hoyt said the company was aptly named. “It’s a hard business, a tough business,” she said. “We worked together Christmas Day, New Year’s. As my daughter grew up, I was still down there doing bookkeeping.” Her former husband “was a workaholic,” Van Hoyt said. “It was his life.”
The couple lived on Martha Lake in the Lynnwood area. They divorced in 1986.
Hildegard LaRouche was a widow when she met Nisson literally by accident more than 12 years ago.
“One of his drivers hit my car right in front of his shop in Seattle. He came out and took care of everything,” LaRouche said. “He left his keys in my car. When I returned his keys, he kept calling.”
When he wasn’t working, Nisson loved outdoor sports.
His youngest sister, Linda Barrett, remembered his teaching her to water ski and snow ski. There was no easy slope in her ski lessons. Barrett said he’d take her to the top of the mountain and say, “OK, go.”
LaRouche has wonderful memories of ski and snowmobile trips to Big Mountain in Montana. Nisson had a motorcycle and loved boating.
“And he loved music. He loved classical music and country music,” she said.
His industriousness started early, LaRouche said. He’d tell her about being a kid in Oregon and fixing up old bikes to sell.
At 68, he was still working. He was driving a truck in need of repairs when he suffered an aneurysm, LaRoche said.
“We tried to get him to retire long time ago,” Barrett said of her brother. “He almost sold the business couple times, but he couldn’t let go of it. That’s who he was.
“He was always busy,” Barrett said. “Unfortunately, he did work too many hours. Even though it created a lot of stress for him, it created a lot of happiness for him. That was his life.”
“He loved his business,” said Nisson’s daughter, Dawnell Kreider. “I hope he found peace.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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