Richard Lee Kollmar

Richard Lee Kollmar was born Wednesday, May 9th at 5:25AM 1934 by doctor AE Henby, he was 7lbs 12.5oz 20 long. His first address was 8041 9th AVE NW, Seattle WA. An only child of Robert Ernest Kollmar and Harriet Maybelle Longfellow

Surviving children: Vickie Kollmar, Dwayne Kollmar, Cheryl Mueller, Gloria Mahoney, Wendy Brouse. Grandchildren: Cheryl's children: Kimberly, David, Gloria's children: Ryan, Stephanie, Shawna, Wendy's children: Kurtis, Kendra and Vickie's step son Zane Franklin.Great Grandchildren: Stephanie's Son Daeyn, Kimberly's Son Samuel and Daughter Katherine, Ryans Daughters Wendy and Madison and Son Trevor.

He was born and grew up in the Seattle neighborhood called Blue Ridge where he went to Ballard High School. He was a sprint runner and played the trombone and 5'9.5 tall. His grades suffered though. He was not into scholastics. He wanted to play, although he graduated in the army later.

He and his friends joined together to make a jazz band. Some are still doing it. (His five children were all musical)

Raised to be a gentleman, he liked the finer things in life. He rode horses on his grandfathers' ranch in Juanita. He skied the mountains of Washington on wood skis while being chased by a cougar. He also learned to dance gracefully, albeit one step called the quick step. He was good at it. He had a transmission shop in Ballard as a teenager and hired the one homeless guy on the street.

He volunteered in the Army along with his best friend Gary Nein . He was stationed in Korea for 3 years from 1953-55 out of Fort Campbell Kentucky, as a communications specialist. He was in the Armies first trained First Airborne (Special Forces) unit where he was the scout looking for the enemy in his personal Cessna L19 Birddog spotter plane with his dog named Blackie. The dog was similar to a lab here in the USA (who had his own personal body guard as they ate dogs in Korea back then) all while setting up communications towers. When he flew, sometimes the horizon was not clear but he could tell he was upside-down when the dog was on the ceiling. He did get to go to Germany and look up his relatives there while in the Army. (His cousin Perry Kollmar went to Germany also and found that the town of Kollmar was actually on the Northern coast of Germany up the Elbe river from Hamburg.) Richard talked of how surprised he was that belching after dinner was not rude at all but actually a compliment to the cook.

He was honorably discharged after taking shrapnel while jumping out of a plane in Korea. He hit his head on a bluff and was knocked out. His buddies came across enemy lines to rescue him but his knee was in bad shape. So the army doc whittled a kangaroo bone for his knee. They used a yankie drill as this was in the field with no pain meds. Not even aspirin. He had a high tolerance for pain. This bone served him well and never gave him problems all the rest of his life. He was then promoted to an officer in the Special Forces.

He met and married his only wife Joan Carlsen of Ballard when he was on leave in the army. He met her on her porch of her parents' house waiting to go to the doctor. She was 17 and he was 21. He courted her for 10 days and then went to get a marriage license; he then had 5 children a year apart. When he got out of the army he and his cousin Perry Kollmar purchased a plane they had for a short time.

He was an entrepreneur with many businesses such as selling and repairing sewing machines, opening various stores in CA and WA, specializing in Singer and Viking. He was a real estate agent and opened his own brokerage firm called King Realty after working for Picture Floor Plans and Red Carpet along with Lake Chelan Properties. He also opened Radiant Art Heat and sold radiant pictures in the 70's. (His family still has some of them working even now) In 1969 he opened his first Electrical Contracting business called Dicks Electric. He then sold that and opened Kollmar Electric and later sold that and moved to Chelan WA. Came back a few years later and opened AAA Electric and Cascade Electric. He became a master electrician specializing in service calls and remodels, loving the challenge and gratification of his customers. He then received an Administrators License. He was still working well into his 70's as an electrician.

Other jobs he had while trying to raise a large family were Taxi cab driver in Seattle, Boeing Seattle plant, a railroad switchman and a car salesman.

He volunteered with the FBI for 9 years part time while keeping this all a secret even from his wife until the big bust in golden gardens in the 60's when they asked him to leave the country or quit. When he was about 70 years old he ran into one of his FBI fellows who asked him to come back. They were working on drugs coming in to Seattle via some yachts. They were watching one in particular and its water line. He volunteered to get information for them. So he acted like a bum and went over to the boat with a paper bag. He asked the people on board if he could sell them some kind of boat part, of which we do not recall now. He needed money to buy gas for his boat he said to them. He was broke. They believed him and gave him money and took the bag. The bag had a voice receiver in it picking up any conversation they might have. The FBI got the information they needed to go ahead. Gun fire broke out and he decided then he did not want to go back into the FBI. He hid behind the dumpster.

He was Trader Dick of automobiles. He probably had 200 cars and trucks in his life time ranging from a 41 ford coupe to Jaguars to T-birds and Chevy vans and of course Cadillacs. He was always looking for cars to buy and buyers to buy them as he always had a passion for them and thought he could make a dime doing it.

He raced cars in figure 8, oval and demolition. His wife Joan always wanted to tell the story of her hatching bananas as he won his first demolition race and received $50. His race car was usually No. 50.

He remodeled a couple of homes to sell as well. (Remembering the purple house he then painted black with white trim)

He was forever friendly and making new friends and a lot of times bringing them home and hiring them to work for him in his electrical contracting business. He taught them well enough so they started their own businesses. (I am thinking of pigpen for one).

He always had a special love of animals. He had a unique no-fear connection. Even wild animals such as a bear, a wolf and even had a panther at one time.

Having a large family of 5 children, he got them involved with boy and girl scouts. He went camping every chance he could get on the weekends.

He also had a love for boating. He had a Tolly Craft cabin he would take out on trips such as to Blake Island to go camping overnight and even bring birthday cake for Wendy's birthday as it was memorial weekend. They got caught in a storm once coming from Kingston, hoping he could out run it, most of his kids got sick. He would take it through the locks and put it in Lake Washington with his Samoyed dog named Niki on the engine cover. Then he taught his kids to water ski while living on the Slu in a cabin. Then after his children grew up he bought a 50 foot 1951 Chris Craft called the Dolphin in which he replaced the engines with new twin diesels. He led the Christmas ships one year and then demonstrated that the engines could tow water skiers behind. He took it on an extended weekend to Vancouver Island but ran out of gas in the straights so that the Canadian coast guard had to tow them in. Well, he had towed numerous other stranded boats along the way, so now it was his turn. He always went to the hydroplane races in the boats he owned with his family. He once even drove the hydroplane called Slo-mo IV while on their pit crew.

His only downfall was women. All they had to do was smile. All in all he led a very full life. Rest in Peace Dad.