One friend said he could spend hours telling “Harry stories.” Others remembered the school bus driver kids called “Happy Harry.”
Going through all the cards and messages received since Harry Metzger died, his wife has noticed a common theme.
Many who knew him – through his lifelong involvement in Everett, his business, his four daughters’ athletic activities or his days at Mission Beach – remember a big man with a big heart, a big smile, a big laugh and a big appetite for life.
“The essence of his life, he was really full of life,” Jeanne Metzger said of her husband of 49 years.
Harry Bertois Metzger died Jan. 8 after an extended illness. He was 77.
In addition to his wife, Jeanne, he is survived by four daughters and sons-in-law: Jan and Jack Brossman of Pullman; Jo and Don Levin of Everett; Meg Metzger and Doug Clark of Bellingham; and Maddy Metzger-Utt and Randy Utt of Everett; and seven grandchildren, Christa and Jay Brossman, Tyler and Bryce Levin, Jessa and Emma Clark, and Siena Utt.
“He loved to greet everybody, and never had a bad day,” said Jo Levin, athletic director at Everett High School. Her father was a loud supporter when she played sports at Everett High School and became known for his booming “Here we go, man!”
“Wherever I go, all over the state, people will say, ‘I remember your dad.’” Levin said.
Levin said her dad had his four daughters mowing the lawn and changing the oil. They’d joke that they wanted a brother. “But if you look at us now, we’re all strong personalities,” Levin said.
In the summer, she and her sisters remember fishing, crabbing and swimming with their father at their Mission Beach summer home. Before retirement, Jeanne Metzger worked many years as an editor and writer at The Herald. The couple raised their daughters in north Everett but later built their permanent home at Mission Beach.
Born in Everett April 27, 1929, Harry Metzger graduated from Everett High School in 1947 and attended Washington State College in Pullman. He was a competitive swimmer in high school and college. He joined the U.S. Air Force and served with the 3rd Motor Transport in Britain.
The grandson of Everett pioneers, Harry followed his father, Harry L. Metzger, into the insurance and property management business. He owned Harry Metzger Insurance agency in downtown Everett.
Upon retirement from his own business, he started a second career as a school bus driver in the Everett School District. At Christmastime, he’d grow a beard and don a Santa suit as he drove his routes.
“I think those were some of the happiest times of his life,” said Jeanne Metzger. “He loved kids.”
In 2005, the Metzgers became the eighth founding family of the Greater Everett Community Foundation. Maddy Metzger-Utt is executive director of the foundation, which supports a number of local charities.
At a memorial service Jan. 13 at First Congregational Church in Everett, there were more laughs than tears as friends and family told “Harry stories.”
Joann Byrd, former executive editor of The Herald, retraced a cross-country drive with Harry Metzger in 1995.
Byrd was leaving a position at The Washington Post and was returning to Seattle. She was stunned when her friend Jeanne’s husband volunteered to drive her back from Washington, D.C.
Hauling a trailer, they made the trip in three days, with a one-hour stop to see Mount Rushmore. Byrd still laughs about the “Harry Metzger school of driving.”
Son-in-law Jack Brossman remembered first meeting a “big, intimidating man who filled a room.” It didn’t take long for him to learn that “Harry’s bark was bigger than his bite.”
“He had a great big heart,” Brossman said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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