EVERETT — They are two chaplains who share more than an enduring love for a common profession.
They share a Swedish heritage and a friendship that has lasted nearly 60 years: through college and seminary, through cross-country moves to start parishes, and over many fishing trips for salmon and walleye. Both have been married for more than 50 years. Both left the colleges they first attended for love and, according to both, neither acts his age.
Good-hearted souls, they also share a common fish story, the one about how they religiously sang “du gamla du fria du…” the Swedish national anthem, early each Monday morning, to lure in big catches of salmon on Puget Sound when others were catching just a few.
For the last seven years they’ve shared a common job in Everett.
Norris Swenson is the full-time chaplain. Ernie Pihl is the part-time chaplain, the “fill-in guy” when Swenson is away. Both serve at Bethany of the Northwest, a long-term care facility owned and operated by a group of 32 Lutheran congregations and headquartered at Everett’s Providence Hospital, said Swenson.
On a recent Wednesday, Swenson and Pihl also shared in a celebration honoring them for 50 years in the ministry.
“I think I saw Ernie back in about 1950 in Lutheran League activities,” said Swenson, “but I really met him at Pacific Lutheran College, now Pacific Lutheran University, in the fall of 1952, where we were both classmates.”
From there, they ended up as classmates at Augustana Lutheran Theological Seminary in Rock Island, Ill., where they were both ordained.
Swenson said Pihl has assisted him at Bethany for about seven years and fills in for him during the summer when he and his family take vacation to their cabin on Boulder Lake near Park Rapids, Minn., a place they’ve been going for 35 years.
For brief periods after ordination, Swenson’s and Pihl’s callings took them to different parts of the country; one to the Midwest, the other to Alaska. Sometimes they followed in each other’s footsteps, like the time Swenson served at Grace Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Iowa where Pihl followed after Swenson left.
Whether they were close geographically or apart, they kept in touch.
“We always kept close,” Swenson said. “And we have many shared interests. We’ve had many fishing trips together, many trips to Minnesota, to Alaska, and primarily in the later years in Puget Sound. Ernie and I used to catch many salmon out there.”
Today they minister to roughly 270 residents at three Bethany locations — Bethany at Silver Lake, Bethany at Silvercrest and Bethany at Pacific.
About the only thing the two chaplains don’t have in common is their birthplaces. Swenson was born in Bemidji, Minn., moved to Washington, and graduated from what was then Lincoln High School in Seattle. His dad was a Lutheran pastor. Pihl was born in Seattle and graduated from Bothell High School.
“I’m the better-looking one,” Swenson said.
“I think he’s very bright and he has a great sense of humor,” Phil said.
Reporter Leita Hermanson-Crossfield: 425-339-3449 or lcrossfield@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
