Farming wasn’t his original love, but for George Grimm, the family dairy near Silvana enticed him back to his roots.
His sister, Martha Young, said when they grew up on the farm, it was a wide-open playland. The Grimm children played in the barn and fell out of trees, she said, but they didn’
t dream about taking over the land.
“I don’t think George ever thought about the fact it might be available for him to work later on in life,” Young said. “He left home and looked for other things.”
George Grimm’s wife, who worked in Washington, D.C., liked the idea of living on a farm.
“George moved back and started working it,” his sister said. “Maybe it was time to go home.”
George J. Grimm, 92, died of natural causes March 19 at the farm he loved. The farm was homesteaded by his great-grandfather, Thomas Jensen, in 1878.
Mr. Grimm was born July 9, 1918, in Arlington, to William and Dora Grimm. He went to school in a two-room schoolhouse where the Stillaguamish Indian smoke shop is today at Island Crossing.
“Dad always supported the schools,” said his son, Bruce Grimm. “He believed that the more knowledge and education you have, the better you are equipped to tackle today’s world.”
George Grimm graduated in 1936 from Arlington High School. After high school, he worked for Darigold. In 1937, he pursued a passion for flying and attended Curtiss-Wright Technical School, an aircraft mechanic’s school at Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, Calif.
“One day a barnstormer came to Marysville and once he took a flight in that two-seater biplane, he was hooked,” his son said. “His childhood hero was aviator Charles Lindbergh.”
Mr. Grimm worked for The Boeing Co. with a journeyman mechanic rating before he left for World War II.
During the war, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1948 and was commissioned as a naval aviator assigned to Naval Air Transport Service Squadrons VR-2 and VRJ-1. On Aug. 29, 1945, he was assigned as first pilot on the flight transporting Fleet Adm. C.W. Nimitz to the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay which took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri.
He flew many members of Congress and military dignitaries during his Navy years.
On one flight, his passenger was Charles Lindbergh.
George Grimm was a member of the Stillaguamish Valley Pioneer Association, the Puget Sound Chapter of the Model T Ford Club of America, the PB2Y Flying Boat Squadrons Association, Museum of Flight, Nile Shrine Center Temple Guard, the American Legion and Peace Lutheran Church.
He is survived by his son, Bruce, and his wife, Anne, of Longview; sisters Martha Young of Stanwood, Dorothy Carroll of Mount Vernon and Betty Keller of Redmond; three grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Arlyne (Haugen) Grimm, in 1988; second wife, Violet (Tate) Grimm, in 2006; and his son, Robert Grimm, in 2007; as well as brothers William T. and John A. Grimm.
While working the farm for 30 years, he supplied milk to Darigold. He was involved in soil conservation, wetland protection and farmland preservation.
The Grimms were named the Snohomish County Dairy Family of the Year in 1968, when life was more subdued. They never locked doors or had fancy alarm systems, Bruce Grimm said.
“The only alarm we had was when some passerby would yell from the yard in the dead of night: ‘The cows are out! The cows are out!’ “
Every farmer knows the drill of rounding up a wayward herd.
And as a farmer, George Grimm had enemies: pigeons, starlings and moles.
His son said his father loved long drives, always checking out other farms.
“He was a walking history lesson,” his son said. “He loved this Stillaguamish Valley. He was raised here, left to travel around the world a couple times, then came back to his roots to farm this fertile land and later finally be laid to rest. Right where he wanted to be.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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