Standing next to a leafless locust tree, Orwin “Doc” Hageman surveyed the 7.7-acre farm where he’s lived for 50 years, just east of the city limits and Alderwood mall.
Cats roamed around his vegetable garden on a cold winter day. The retired farmer spends hours a day tending to the garden and property, which has been in city of Lynnwood hands since 2002.
Years ago, Hageman, 91, raised poultry for the eggs he’d sell in Alderwood Manor. He raised cattle for beef and even used to raise mink.
As small-scale farming declined over the years, salesmen started showing up at his door, offering to buy his property for development.
He pointed to the end of his property line.
“Don’t tell anyone,” he whispered. “But I’ve got a cemetery down there for all the salesmen.”
In 2002, Hageman sold his Tutmark Hill property to the city for $1.1 million, at least 20 percent less than he could have charged, said Laurie Cowan, city of Lynnwood parks planner.
The city plans to convert the farm, which is located outside city limits, into a neighborhood park. The land lies within the city’s urban growth area, and it’s possible that the farm and surrounding neighborhoods will be annexed into the city next year, if property owners agree.
A $1 million Snohomish County Neighborhood Improvement Fund grant paid for most of the purchase price, Cowan said.
“With all these houses coming in here year after year, I said ‘I’m going to see if I can save this as a park,’” Hageman said.
And save the farm, he did.
In gratitude for his generosity, neighbors who met with city officials at a public meeting last November said they supported naming the property Doc Hageman Park. State law requires that six months elapse before Tutmark Hill Neighborhood Park is renamed Doc Hageman Park, which will happen next July.
“He’s a sweet, good man and just a nice, nice person,” said Patti Bourgault, a neighbor whose family has lived off Maple Road since 1930.
Bourgault and her husband, Michael, led the South Snohomish County Preservation Association’s efforts to preserve rural property. The organization worked with the city of Lynnwood to apply for that $1 million grant.
The Bourgaults have known Hageman for nearly 25 years.
“We used to go and get manure from him for our garden,” Patti Bourgault said. “I remember being pregnant and shoveling manure into my truck.”
Hageman stays in touch with many of his neighbors, some of whom keep his telephone number handy to check up on him.
“We’re always concerned that he could be out working in his garden and trip or have some sort of medical situation,” said neighbor Jim Swanson.
Swanson’s wife, Patty, bakes goodies for Doc, who loves to cook his own meals, especially soup.
“Chicken soup, with vegetables — that’s good,” Hageman said.
Every Christmas, Hageman gives away trees from his Christmas tree farm and customers are welcome to donate to the charity of his choice, which is Children’s Hospital in Seattle.
The money from sales of trees and his corn patch goes to a fund he set up in memory of his wife, Ruth, who died in 2000.
“Last year, I sent $10,000 to Children’s Hospital,” he said. “I love the place.”
He has also provided scholarships to three women, two of them from Granite Falls, who are studying nursing.
“If they want to be nurses, I’ll make ‘em nurses,” he said.
Born and raised on a Granite Hills farm, Hageman was a high school student during the Depression. He got his nickname while caring for his father, who died young of cancer.
His father’s doctor sent Hageman to a pharmacy to fetch syringes, then told him to administer morphine tablets and boil water.
He served as a medic in the U.S. Army in the Aleutian Islands during World War II and moved to Lynnwood in 1958.
With a talent for woodworking, Hageman has made children’s toys, bowls and wooden train cars. He chuckled and giggled as he played with one of his wooden toys. He’s missing the ends of two right fingers, casualties of a sawing accident.
“I tell people one day I was filing my nails and I just got a little too carried away,” he said.
In 2002, the city gave Hageman five years to live on the property as a caretaker. Last year, the city granted him a one-year extension.
“We don’t want to kick him off the property, he’s worried about that,” Cowan said. “I try to reassure him every time I go over to see him that we’re not going to kick him off.”
The city will present plans for the park during a neighborhood meeting in late February or early March, Cowan said.
Construction would likely begin in 2009.
A neighborhood pea patch is likely and favored by neighbors.
“The barn, if it’s able to be saved, would be a real good support structure for the pea patch,” Cowan said.
Hageman stays active by tending to the farm daily. He also bowls twice a week and has the trophies to show for it.
“I get up in the morning and wiggle my toes,” he said. “That’s how I know I’m alive.”
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