Carl F. Ellingson's Obituary
Carl F. Ellingson, 64, passed away unexpectedly of natural causes on June 4, 2019.
He was born in Tacoma on February 2, 1955, and grew up in Parkland, graduating from Washington High School in 1973, and then attending Clover Park Technical College. He spent his entire working life at St. Regis/Simpson Tacoma Kraft, retiring in 2017.
The Kraft mill was his livelihood, his Day Job (“I’m in chips,” he said), but not his passion. What Carl loved was music, especially rock & roll and blues. He began taking classical guitar lessons at age 15 and practiced till his fingers bled in hopes of being able to play like, say, Jimi or Eric Clapton. We’ll never know how good he got, that day job with its rotating shifts soaked up a lot of time and he was modest in talking about his playing (he’d say, “I’m Norwegian, I don’t brag.”) It was making music that mattered and he was doing it until the end.
Carl’s second love was the outdoors, especially the mountains, preferably where there was plenty of nature and not many people. He hiked and camped all over the Olympics, Cascades and the Rockies. He made one ascent of Mount Rainier but had to turn back—hardly more than a few vertical feet from the summit, he claimed—because of altitude sickness. He wasn’t disappointed, he said boasting points hadn’t been his personal goal and the whole experience was so far out that even the agony was kind of interesting.
His third great love was Johnny, the Labrador retriever he adopted after Dad died in 2004. Mom had to talk him into it—he didn’t want the responsibility—but it wasn’t long before he was taking her with him everywhere, and he told us she was the best thing that ever happened to him. Johnny passed at a very ripe old age in 2014, and all good dog (or cat) owners will know how hard this was for Carl.
Our brother was a mellow and laid-back kind of guy, down-to-earth and peaceable, an old hippy with a crew cut. Informal and unpretentious, with him it was always Casual Friday. He had his opinions but he did not push them at you. “It’s a free country and you can be as big a fool as you want.” Stubborn though, Norwegian stubborn. He was also very funny, but you had to pay attention, watch his expression. He had a sly wit and an appreciation of people’s little quirks and life’s ironies. He made jokes about “Proud Vikings, ja sure” and claimed to be a Marxist—a Groucho Marxist. He could be fanciful in a trippy way, a way that made his sister say, “What are you ON?” And he’d just smile.
Carl was preceded in death by his parents Ozzie and Laura Ellingson, and is survived by his brother and sister-in-law Bob and Carolyn Ellingson and sister Kathryn Ellingson, all of Seattle, and his sister and brother-in-law, Janet and Morrie Ungurs of Fircrest, as well as a nephew, nieces and cousins.
Some appropriate ways to remember Carl would be to:
Go on a hike or take a long walk, pay attention, and be a good steward of the land.
Practice the 3 Rs: Repair, Re-use, Recycle.
Adopt a dog, maybe an older one who might not otherwise find a home.
Play some music, sing along!
What’s your fondest memory of Carl?
What’s a lesson you learned from Carl?
Share a story where Carl's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Carl you’ll never forget.
How did Carl make you smile?