Bill Carpenter was a prominent banker whose family played an important role in Everett’s lumber mill history.
Those who knew him best remember Carpenter not as a business leader, but as a fun-loving man who treasured his friendships.
“He kept a list of everybody he felt it was important to keep in touch with,” said Susan Dawson, the youngest of Carpenter’s four children. “Every Saturday, he would go down that list, and call to see how they were doing.”
Dr. Warren Cronkhite, a retired Everett dentist, was a friend of Carpenter’s for more than 60 years. “He was a people person all the way, no question about that,” Cronkhite said.
William Deane Carpenter died at his Everett home March 18. He was 93.
The son of Deane Carpenter and Helen Stuchell Carpenter, he was born June 26, 1917 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Carpenter lived most of his life in Everett, where he worked at the Eclipse Mill Company. It was a family business, operated by Edwin Stuchell and Harry Stuchell, Carpenter’s cousin. The big Everett sawmill was on the Snohomish River. The mill was destroyed by a fire in May 1962.
“The mill brought the Carpenters and Stuchells together,” said Jackie Minor, Carpenter’s sister. “When it burned down, Bill became the first chairman of the Bank of Everett.”
The new bank was on Everett’s Wetmore Avenue, near what is now the Everett Performing Arts Center. Carpenter stayed at Bank of Everett until it was sold to Rainier Bank in 1981, Susan Dawson said.
Minor said her parents came to Everett with their two sons before she was born. They raised their family on Grand Avenue and 33rd Street, in a house near their Stuchell relatives.
Bill Carpenter and his wife, Gloria, later bought a home on Grand Avenue, across from Grand Avenue Park. In the late 1960s, Susan Dawson said, they sold that house to Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson.
Bill Carpenter was preceded in death by his wife, who died in 2000, and by their daughter, Cynthia. He is survived by his second wife, Billie. She and her first husband, Art “Tork” Torkelson, had been close friends of Bill and Gloria Carpenter.
He also is survived by his son Jeffrey, of Portland, Ore.; son Gregory, of Mount Vernon; daughter Mary Milner, of West Linn, Ore.; daughter Susan Dawson, of Everett; by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; by his sister, Jackie Minor, and his sister-in-law, Blanche Carpenter. He also leaves a stepdaughter, a stepson, several cousins, nieces and nephews.
A 1934 graduate of Everett High School, Bill Carpenter was a longtime organizer of his class reunions. Anne Tilly, of Wenatchee, was a high school classmate of Carpenter’s and helped him organize many of the gatherings. Only six members of their class of more than 300 attended their last reunion.
“He was the most popular, handsome boy at Everett High. If he even nodded at me in the hall, I was on cloud nine,” said Tilly, who is 95.
She remembers singing the Everett High fight song with Carpenter at every reunion, and getting those Saturday phone calls from a dear friend. “He would always keep in touch. I’m going to miss him,” she said.
After high school, Carpenter went on to graduate from the University of Washington in 1941. He served as a naval supply officer during World War II.
Carpenter was a lifelong member of the Everett Golf and County Club. His mother was one of the club’s early members. Cronkhite and other friends played golf with Carpenter several times a week until Carpenter was in his late 80s.
“He would bet you on anything,” said Cronkhite, adding that his friend also loved to play poker. Dawson, who often played cribbage with her father, said when Carpenter would lose a game, he’d make a show of crying. That earned him the nickname, “Willie the Weep.”
“I still owe him $4,” Cronkhite said, remembering a golf game Carpenter won.
“He was just a people person. He loved his family and he loved his friends,” Cronkhite said.
Carpenter also loved his community.
He was president of the YMCA board in 1954, chairman of the local United Way in 1966, and served several years on the Providence Hospital board. He was also a longtime member of Everett’s First Presbyterian Church.
After retirement, Carpenter volunteered at Bethany at Silver Lake, playing cards with elderly residents.
“He had some tough stuff. We had a sister who died,” Dawson said. “But Dad always thought he had a great life. I think his calling in life was bringing people together.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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