Ole Lie

Ole Lie passed away on April 26, 2016 at the age of 93 after a short illness. His wife, son and daughter were at his side.

Ole is survived by Laila his loving wife of 55 years and two children Stein Erik Lie (Pam) and Hege Watkins (Kurt) and grandchildren Kjerstin and Britany Lie, and Bjorn, Hans and Nils Watkins and Dominique Scott.

Ole was born in the small town of Feiring, Norway on October 24, 1922 to Conrad and Aagot Lie. After living through 5 years of German occupation of Norway during WWII, he was hired by Moore McCormick Lines in Oslo and in November 1947 he was transferred to their New York office. He had a harrowing crossing of the Atlantic on the Bloomington Victory whose sister ship broke in two in front of them. Ole arrived in New York with only a suitcase and his jumping skis and soon became a member of the Norway Ski Club in Brooklyn.

The first ski jumping tournament was at Bear Mountain with 20,000 spectators, which he won. Ole was a quiet guy so it came as quite a surprise that his coworkers had to read about his ski jumping ability in the New York Times.

In June 1948, Ole and a friend hitchhiked across the country with Seattle as their destination. After seeing a flyer at the Osborn and Ulland Sporting Goods Store in Seattle, for a ski jumping competition at Mt. Baker on 4th of July, Ole entered it and as he said “I got lucky and I won”. This sealed the deal for Ole, and Seattle became his home. He attended the University of Washington and was a member of the UW Ski Team. Ole spent several winters in Sun Valley working as a waiter and doing exhibition ski jumping and this became a special place for the family from then on.

Ole bought his home on First Hill on Mercer Island in 1957, and on a visit back to Norway for the holidays, he met his wife, Laila, and they were married on April 28, 1961 on Mercer Island.

Ole then spent the majority of his career as a superintendent in the fishing industry, spending summers in SE Alaska in charge of fishing fleets. Later he worked as the controller for Scan Design Furniture until retirement at the age of 70.

Ole loved to downhill ski and plays soccer and continued to be involved in both sports until his mid 80’s.

Memorial service will be held at Bellevue Presbyterian Church, 1717 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 on Sunday, May 22, 2016, at 2 pm.

Remembrances may be made to Evergreen Hospice, 12822 124th NE, Kirkland, WA 98034 or your favorite charity.