Martin Lode

03.14.1936 – 04.13.2023

A memorial service for Martin will be held Saturday, May 6, 2023 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Purdy & Walters at Floral Hills, 409 Filbert Road, Lynnwood, WA 98036, followed by a reception from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM.

Martin was born in 1936 in Kleppe, near Stavanger on the family farm, to Maria and Georg Lode. He was the youngest of four children, all of whom are still living. Both of his parents, Maria and Olav, worked in Stavanger before they finally bought their Ovregard homestead in Klepp. They were given a cow for a wedding present from Maria’s brother and that was the beginning of the farm and their family. Olav had no tractor to cultivate the fields, so it was done by hand, removing each stone to build the fences and separate the fields. It was very hard work indeed. Maria had her first child in 1927. When she arrived at the hospital there was no help for her and her child, and the baby girl died. However, joy returned when Olav and Maria welcomed a small baby girl in 1929. They named her Ingeborg, and with more help, she grew up strong. Next to come was Gunlaug in 1931, and by 1932 they had their first son, Olav. They were good parents and the children were well taken care of on the farm. Maria lost another baby girl before she finally had Martin. His siblings were happy to have a younger brother and their family was now complete. His older sister Ingeborg took good care of him, taking him everywhere, on the farm, into the barn with the cows and working in the fields with their father, her favorite thing to do.

All four children went to the same school which only met three times per week. And so, three times a week they would go to and from school together. On their days off from school, they completed their chores and Martin loved to do his with his father, so much so, that Olav once said Martin ought to be the new farmer in Ovregard. The family lived through the German occupation of Norway, with Martin being 9 years old when it ended and he remembered it well. He often would tell of his mother feeding the young teenage soldiers boiled eggs, because they needed to eat too. Anyone who knew Martin knows firsthand that he inherited his mother’s kindness for all creatures, and critters.

As a teenage boy he attended a school for girls and boys ages 16-17, the American equivalent of high school. After he finished there, Martin wanted to try and work one or two years on a school ship, akin to the merchant marines, ships sailing Norway's coast and on voyages to England. He liked it there and often wrote letters home telling his family about daily life on the sea. In one letter, he wrote that the men were only served white bread. Back on the Ovregard farm, his siblings did not know what white bread was as they only ate brown bread because their mother, Maria, baked all the bread herself, without white meal. And Maria was well versed in healthy, good food, so much so, she wrote a letter to the captain of the ship herself about the type of bread served. And not so long after that, Martin relayed that they now ate “grout”, coarse, brown bread.

After Martin’s Sea adventures, came the question, what about the farm now? After knowing he would not have a future farming with his family, he said to himself, “I will go to the USA.” Before he planned to leave, he was out picking stones from the fields with his father, when Martin told him that he was leaving for the United States. It was with a sad, sad, heart that Olav drove him to the Sola Airport and knew that he has lost Martin as the “farmer in Ovregard.”

It was 1955 when Martin arrived in New York to begin his adventure with his uncle Ray on a farm near Glacier Park in Montana. Martin worked there for a year before he left to join the Marine Corps. So, in 1956, he entered the United States military for a period of six years, three active and three years reserve duty. During the time he was stationed in San Diego, he enjoyed martial arts in his spare time. Specifically, Jiu Jitsu and he was quite good at it, winning trophies in the sport. Martin also was an expert marksman for the Marine Corps in which he received accommodations for. It was then where he did a stint with the US Coast Guard and met Curtis Wright. Through Curt, he met Ron Olsen, and Martin then became a permanent fixture and friend in the Olsen extended family.

When his three-year stint was over, he left for Seattle to be closer to family, and his sister Gunlaug Straume. In 1958, in Seattle, he met Carol Ann Mathisen. They were married in 1962 and lived in their house on 8th and 65th NW in Ballard just down from the high school. In 1970, they welcomed their only daughter, Anita Lovise. By 1972, Martin and Carol had bought a house at Martha Lake, fondly known as the “boonies”, and made Alderwood Manor their forever home.

By then, Martin had many friends, including the Olsen brothers, Ron and Bob, Ron Blower, and Darol Brekke. Darold Brekke had attended high school with Carol and was the proprietor of the oldest family run steel fabrication company in Ballard, the Brekke Company. He became Martin’s closest friend and confidant for life. He spent a lot of time there, especially after work on Fridays, where the “gang”, consisting of, Ron Olsen, Bob Olsen, Ron Blower, and of course Darold Brekke, would get together and barbeque steaks on the old 55-gallon steel drum Darold had made into their cooktop. They all were his lifelong friends.

Back in the beginning or his career, Martin went to work at Cawdrey and Vemo, the General Contractor. Being from Norway certainly gave him an "in" there. Bjarne Vemo was a Norwegian, from Alesund Sound, and if you were Scandinavian, could swing a hammer or drive a backhoe, C & V was where you would want to work. It was the Scandinavian Mafia so-to speak. Carl Sandstrom, Sverre Waage, Henrik Vjalle, Karl Fjelle, Mauno Karvonen, Cliff Aarde, and many others with Scandinavian heritage.

In 1968 Martin was the crane operator on a Safeco building in the University District, run by Carl Sandstrom and Jerry Aldrich. Then at Rocket Research in Redmond with Fred Hedman, Harborview Hospital, and Montesano Jail. Martin worked on several well-known C & V buildings around Seattle, the Sunset West at Shilshole, the Renton Inn, the 4th Avenue telephone building (now the W Hotel), the Pacific Natural Gas building on Mercer, and a hotel at 45th and I-5.

When Bjarne Vemo retired in 1973. Jerry Aldrich, Fred Hedman and Martin spun off and formed Aldrich and Hedman, and The Lode Company (TLC), based in Bothell. In 1976, Bjarne Vemo's son, Arne, started The Vemo Company, with Richard Griffiths, and they were awarded a US Navy contract at the Manchester Fuel Pier in Kitsap County. Martin, with his back-hoe and equipment, went to work there. This led to several other Navy projects, some in the High Security areas at the Bangor Trident Submarine Base. In 1981-1982 Martin was the tower crane operator on the 12 story UEPH housing building in the Bremerton Navy Shipyard. For several years the crews commuted daily on the ferries. There were several more Navy contracts in the 1980s.

This was a lucrative time to be in construction. And in 1981, Martin, being the family man he was, built himself a inground pool in his backyard, complete with a diving board. Many good times by friends, family, and neighbors, were had by all during the summer. Friendship, food, and of course, critters. It seemed to always be something going on at the Lode house, or at Ron Olsen’s.

Martin invariably did the sitework, the foundations, the smaller earthwork projects, and the drainage systems. He was very professional and had a wonderful reputation. At 7 a.m. Martin would hit the starter button and he did not stop all day. He also expected this work ethic from everyone on the job, and yet everyone still loved Marty.

From 1984, Ann Wickstrom ran the Vemo office for sixteen years. She knew Martin in two capacities, at work and in the "Classical Music World", where she is still active. She remembers Martin as a member of the Norwegian Male Chorus (Seattle Mannskor), and some performances she and Jeff went to. And she remembers meeting Anita, who was then in high school, when Martin brought her by the office to meet everyone. Ann was her first bookkeeping teacher at age sixteen.

Around then Martin formed The Lode Corporation (TLCorp). Jim Sprague was on the scene,and where the 3-man crew all had the same name, Straume. They may have been related… They had a sizable operation going with the Case backhoes, the Ford dump truck, trailer, the rental equipment, and the 1964 Mercury pickup, all of which Martin kept in top shape with the help of Jim Sprague, of course. Arne Vemo helped him get the corporation set up and Ann was asked if she would take on TLCorp's bookkeeping: payroll, taxes, Washington State quarterly reports, etc. She welcomed this and Arne and Ann set up TLCorp just like TVC. She really enjoyed working with Martin, running the office end of his business for several years.

Fun Fact: In 1990, Martin did all the sitework on Port Townsend's, Ft Worden Balloon Hangar job that appears the movie "Officer and a Gentleman".

Then work was closer to home for several years, working for Vemo with Peter Schomaker, Tom Eidsmoe, Jim Deaton, Steve Norman, Gene Haba, Mauno Karvonen and Rodney Broome; on Kenmore Junior High, Edmonds School District headquarters, Highland Terrace Elementary School, Lowell Elementary in Everett, the FEMA building in Bothell and several Edmonds School District projects. And in 1995 it was Issaquah's Clark Elementary school that was completed. In 1997 there were US Navy contracts at Keyport and Bangor with Mauno Karvonen and Oscar Lundberg. Over the millennium, it was Bainbridge Island High School, Seattle's Steven's Elementary and Lake Stevens School with Les O’Dell and Steve Parshall.

The construction market suddenly ground to a halt after 9/11 in 2001, the Lake Stevens School project being TVC's last project for 2-3 years. Peter Schomaker then worked for Steele Corp for 2-3 years and Martin worked for him there on several projects. In 2005 The Vemo Co restarted with a project in Port Angeles and that was about the time Martin retired – and got busy on his own projects. These were good years.

And we all remember seeing Martin in his singer’s uniform marching in the Norwegian Constitution Day Parades on May 17th. Martin sang with the Norwegian Male Chorus out of Seattle for nearly forty years and he was proud of this group and his association with it. Not only did they sing in the parades, they visited local nursing homes and sang for the people who lived there. There were Norwegian choruses up and down the northwest states from Alaska to California in the major cities, which made up the Pacific Coast Norwegian Singers Association. Every year all the groups would meet in one host city and enjoy a Sangerfest and concert, always leaving a standing audience, blowing everyone away with the tremendous power this entire group of men held within their voices. It was such wonderful time of camaraderie that we all looked forward to all year long, not to mention a mini-vacation.

Martin and his closest friends and family loved to hike, camp, and to just be outdoors. There was always hunting camp to look forward to in the fall, as well as fishing in spring, camping out at Orcas Island, 4th of July parties at Ron and Patty Olsen’s house or snowmobiling in Ronald, WA at Harvey Larsen’s a-frame cabin.

And of course, there were always the critters as Martin would like to say. He always had a dog and a cat as pets, but he also looked out for and fed the birds, squirrels, ducks, raccoons, and any other critter that may come his way. He loved going to the Olsen’s to feed the chickens, pigs, or to feed sheep at the Bergsholm’s. Martin was a real tough guy with a sweet, soft and mushy, heart of gold. He was well respected, loved and adored by all that knew him. His passing is a great loss for many.

Martin is survived by his daughter, Anita Lovise Lode Olsen, and his son-in-law Dennis Olsen, his two grandsons Derrik Allan and Dennis Martin Olsen, his older two sisters Ingeborg Lode Gaard and Gunlaug Lode Straume, his older brother Olav Lode, his brother-in-law Alf Straume, and a numerous nieces and nephews as well as grandnieces and nephews both here and in Norway.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.floralhillslynnwood.com for the Lode family.