Everett man remembers ‘Deadliest Catch’ captain’s generosity
Published 10:58 pm Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A few years back, David Hamack picked up the phone at his Everett business and thought he recognized the gravelly voice on the line.
The man calling Hoglund’s Top Shop Inc., a custom car upholstery and interior business, wanted window tinting for his Corvette. When Hamack asked if the next day would be OK, the caller had a schedule problem. Hamack recalled the man saying something like, “I’ve got to fly out for a show.”
Hamack, a fan of the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” was certain then who was on the phone. That raspy voice belonged to none other than Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie. The crab boat is one of several vessels on the cable show, which gives viewers an icy taste of the extreme conditions fishermen endure in the Bering Sea off Alaska.
Harris, 53, died this month after suffering a stroke Jan. 29 while the Cornelia Marie was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. The Associated Press last week quoted a statement from Discovery Channel senior vice president Elizabeth Hillman, who said Harris had been flown to Anchorage for surgery before his death.
The AP report said the Cornelia Marie was based in Seattle. Hamack said he thought Harris was living in Snohomish County during the time the shop worked on the Corvette and Harris’ custom motorcycle. Hamack said he’d sometimes run into Harris at an Everett restaurant, and at the Tulalip Casino.
“From what I understood, he had a place in Lake Stevens. I never met his kids,” Hamack said.
Jake and Josh Harris, sons of Phil Harris, have worked on the boat and appeared on “Deadliest Catch.”
Josh Harris has a profile page on the MySpace social networking site that lists the 26-year-old’s home as “Monroe, Washington.” There, he has posted a YouTube clip from “Deadliest Catch” showing “Josh Harris, deckhand” on the Cornelia Marie. The video has rugged scenes aboard the boat, but doesn’t appear to show its captain.
There are heartfelt expressions of sympathy posted on the MySpace page, which also shows the red Corvette Z06 that had its windows tinted at the Everett shop.
Hamack said Tuesday that Harris found his business just driving past on Evergreen Way. In addition to having the windows tinted on the Corvette, Hamack said the crab boat captain brought his custom chopper to Hoglund’s Top Shop to have a seat made of leather embossed in a crocodile pattern.
The shop owner said he asked Harris if it would be all right to bring his children into his shop to meet the famous captain when the work was finished.
“We were fans of the show long before he came in,” Hamack said. “He took all the time in the world with my kids.”
Max, Zachary and Jackson, Hamack’s sons, are now 10, 5 and 2. The youngest was just a baby when Harris posed for pictures with the family.
Hamack said Harris generously brought his motorcycle back to be on display when Hoglund’s Top Shop was a stop on a poker run car show. The custom bike could shoot fireballs from its exhaust pipe, Hamack said. “His bike was so cool,” he added.
The car business has had other brushes with fame. Legendary local entertainer Stan Boreson had work on his van done at Hoglund’s Top Shop, Hamack said. And during local filming of “The Fugitive,” a 2000-01 revival of the original TV series, the shop restored a 1968 Pontiac GTO for the CBS show. A thank-you letter from Warner Bros. Television hangs in the shop, along with an autographed photograph of the crab fisherman that says, “To all the guys at Hoglund’s, what a great job. You guys ROCK. Phil Harris.”
Hamack said the burly Harris told him he never dressed up, even when he attended formal gatherings.
“He’d wear blue jeans and a T-shirt,” Hamack said. “He was the kind of guy who was true to himself.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
