MARYSVILLE – Neighbor kids were getting ready to teach their buddy, Martin Sofie, how to ride a skateboard. They enjoyed hanging around his carport, learning how to play street hoops and hit a baseball.
Kids said he was a cool old guy.
Their friend was 92.
Neighbor after neighbor signed a huge banner after Sofie died on his birthday, Aug. 18, of heart failure.
One child wrote that he was dedicating all of his baseball games to Sofie.
Sofie had friends everywhere: his “boys” at a morning Safeway coffee klatch, a golf course, the Elks Clubs, football tailgate parties and a veterans group in Lynnwood.
Martin Thomas Sofie was born in 1914 in Port Townsend, the second youngest of 16 children.
He excelled at all major sports. He joined the Navy in 1935 and served in the Pacific aboard the USS Trenton, a light cruiser. Sofie served as the ship’s stenographer, took shorthand and typed 101 words per minute. During and after his Navy career he was a pioneer in the field of data processing.
Sofie is survived by his wife of 65 years, RoseMarie, daughter, Carolyn Sofie-Barkley; son, Michael Sofie; grandson, Daniel Barkley; and RoseMarie Sofie’s brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Daryl Masi of Port Angeles.
His daughter, Carolyn Sofie-Barkley, said after her father’s 30 years in the service, he worked for the U.S. General Services Administration and the Veterans Administration.
“My dad was a National Service Officer for the Disabled American Veterans,” Sofie-Barkley said. “He never stopped working for ‘his boys.’ “
When he died, he had active files on his desk. Julia Sheriden, Lynnwood chapter senior vice commander, said plans are being made to name the chapter in Sofie’s honor.
Her mentor worked tirelessly to help the lives of veterans.
“He lobbied in Olympia, or Washington, D.C., or he’d lobby at the coffee shop if he needed to,” Sheriden said. “Wherever he needed to go and speak on behalf of veterans, he would go there. Martin was humorous and was all about moving forward, doing better and having high standards.”
A week before he died, he stained his backyard cedar fence while sitting in a lawn chair.
Everyone has their quirks, said his daughter. She said her father always dressed to the nines and carried a flask of brandy in his pocket.
He traveled in a 1995 Cadillac Brougham, which he had nicknamed the Nimitz, with a cooler of pop in the trunk.
Some folks in Marysville may not have appreciated Sofie’s driving style. Concerned about speed limits, he was a slow cruiser at the Nimitz’s helm.
He drove to Las Vegas one time for a convention, tried cooking on a George Foreman grill in his hotel room, and set off the smoke alarm.
“He would do anything to save a buck, but he would be the first to grab the check at dinner,” Sofie-Barkley said. “He was precious, and everyone knew it.”
Paper towels were to be used three times. He wrote notes on an old Royal typewriter. He was frugal, but not cheap, his daughter said.
And the avid University of Washington Huskies fan was modest. He didn’t brag about his hole in one, Nov. 1, 1989, which flew 176 yards on a Seattle course.
He also had a way to tease paramedic friends at Gold’s Gym. Sofie would tediously load up a barbell with 300 pounds of weight. He’d wait until a likely suspect came along, begin to dab his brow, then tell the paramedic to take a shot at lifting the weights.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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