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Ruth was born in 1898. She married Vic Franck in 1920. [1] Ruth died in 1999.
"Vic Franck's Boat Company, long located at 1109 N Northlake Way [Seattle], had the unique distinction among Lake Union boat builders of having been run by a woman for several years, and run extremely well. Victor Arthur Franck (1894-1939) was a cabinet maker born on San Juan Island. In 1920 he married Ruth Elizabeth Russell (1898-1999), and the couple settled in Federal Way. Franck worked as a cabinet maker in Seattle, but in 1927 he sold the family car, bought a piece of land on Lake Union, and with a partner opened a boat-building company called Franck & McCrary. Franck & McCrary started with a line of stock cruisers, called "Sea Queens," to compete with Blanchard's raised-deck cruiser and its imitators. The boat sold for $3,400, which included dishes, cutlery, and other necessities. Like its competitors, Franck & McCrary also built commercial vessels, including fishing boats and commuter boats. Vic Franck took over sole ownership of the company in 1938, and on October 21 that year disaster struck. A fire that began in Edison Vocational's boat-building school at 1117 N Northlake Way destroyed both the school and Franck's building next door. Three boats under construction were consumed, as were 11 years of company records. Adding more heartbreak was the loss of the recently finished Silver Heels, the Franck family's personal boat. The 48-foot vessel was the first twin-screw, flybridge-operated cruiser on the West Coast. It was a terrible blow, and almost exactly one year later Vic Franck died, a death his family attributed to sorrow. Franck's widow, Ruth, was determined to keep the company going, but in 1939 banks would not lend money to businesses run by women, and most suppliers were equally unenlightened. Ruth Franck needed a male partner, so she tapped one of her key shipwrights and reorganized as Lester & Franck. It is doubtful that Lester had any ownership interest, but in 1942 he was replaced by James Chambers, who did. Although the company was now called Chambers & Franck, Ruth Franck ran things, and in her hands the firm prospered during World War II. It was a competitive business, and she was known to help her best workers buy their first homes to keep them from moving to other yards. Her son, Victor Russell Franck (1923-2005), who had learned his skills from his father, returned home after the war and assumed management of a company that was in excellent shape. Chambers left in 1955, and the name once more became simply Vic Franck's Boat Company." [2]
Sources
- ↑ Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPML-352T
- ↑ https://www.historylink.org/file/20366
- United States Census, 1930: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XC3M-FPQ
- United States Census, 1940: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K93Q-3TK
Other Seattle Area Boatbuilders and Designers
- John Anderson
- Norm Blanchard
- Norm Blanchard, Jr.
- Leigh Coolidge
- Frank Curtis
- Walt Curtis
- Al Curtis
- Otis Cutting
- Victor Arthur Franck
- Victor Russell Franck
- Bill Garden
- Ted Geary
- Lewis Grandy
- Earl Grandy
- Bill Grandy
- Tony Jensen
- Anchor Jensen
- Dewitt Jensen
- Harry Jones
- John McLean
- Frank Prothero
- Bob Prothero
- Robert Prothero, Jr.
- Sivert Sagstad
- George Stebbins