The NCC was born in 1932 – not without a great deal of discussion. A group of men of Norwegian descent were members of an organization called the Odinian Society, which was made up of Norwegian Masons. (The group was not growing and efforts to gain new members were unsuccessful.)
During the discussions, it was decided that it was necessary to broaden the base of prospective members. Since it was also the depth of the Great Depression, it was decided that the Norwegians could form a group to help each other, and so the NCC was born.
Eli Paulson, a lawyer and the 2nd President of the NCC, drew up the Articles of Incorporation and 69 members signed the articles. Most of the signers attended the first meeting but after that auspicious beginning the active membership dropped considerably. The meetings were held in the Gowman Hotel which was later torn down. The attendance of each meeting stayed at 35-40 members until WWII. It then dropped to 20-30 members, remaining there for quite a few years, but the membership grew steadily after the Club moved to the Norway Center.
The prime attraction for the attending members was the social hour when they primed themselves for the meeting, Old Crow and Old Granddad seemed to be the favorites and everybody seemed to handle it quite well until one meeting Rangval Flakstad, an importer, decided to treat the members to Aquavit and Norwegian beer. Needless to say, the meeting ended in utter confusion.
The second attraction was the poker game which followed every meeting. Those games were the wildest you could wish to see. They had jokers wild, one-eyed Jacks wild, aces wild and every other combination you could think of. Nobody dared to bluff with all the wild cards.
Our membership has included mayors, councilmen, governors, congressmen, senators and kings. If we ever have a Norwegian president, we will try to sign him up. We have had some memorable members, however. Valdemar Holm was treasurer for many years. He was succeeded by Fred Scheel who held that position so long that they made him an honorary past president and a life member. Dr. K. Falkenberg, membership chairman for many years, was the most beloved. Whenever a guest was introduced, he zeroed in on him with a membership card. Thanks to him, we became a viable organization with a membership of around 400. Allen Pomeroy was the most noticeable. He stood about 6’4” and had a voice like a foghorn. He was mayor of Seattle and later U.S. Attorney for Western Washington.
During the years, we have had some great entertainment. Arthur Foss took us for a trip on the Thea Foss; Sally Rand, the fan dancer, addressed one of the meetings, but left her feathers at home; and an earthquake occurred at one meeting. The most fun we had was playing golf against the Swedes at Mt. Si Golf Course. We usually did pretty well on the first nine, but Bob Nelson, of Standard Service Tire Company, always had a wash tub of beer at the end of the first nine. We didn’t do too well after that.
The proudest days of the NCC were those when the committees functioned well. Frode Frodeson was in charge of Civic Affairs and we attended most of the meetings of the Chamber of Commerce and the Port Commission. The efforts of the NCC were instrumental in getting the Shilshole Marina built. Our Fisheries Committee has done valiant work on Fisherman’s Night and many students have benefited from the work of our Scholarship Committees.
When all is said and done, the Norwegian Commercial Club has been great fun and has lived up to its purpose as expressed some 77 years ago.
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