Archives West Finding Aid

Ethel M. Dassow (1915-2005) was an editor, writer, and collector. Ethel M. Dassow was born in Iowa, the second child of Robert and Abi Dawson. She moved with her family around 1917 to homestead in Horse Heaven Hills on the Columbia River, and then to Iowa Heights near Bellingham. They later moved to the Tiger area in Northeastern Washington. Ethel graduated from Colville High School in 1932, attended Whitworth College, then in 1936 eloped with John Dassow to Seattle, where she attended the University of Washington, majoring in English, and graduating in 1950.

In 1941 John Dassow was hired by Maurice Stansy to work at the Ketchikan Fisheries Technology Lab; he arrived there on December 7, 1941. In June 1942, Ethel arrived in Ketchikan with their two sons, Robert and Richard. Shortly thereafter she was hired by Emery Tobin, editor of the Alaska Sportsman. She quickly became Assistant Editor, rewriting manuscripts, laying out pages, and authoring the magazine's feature column, "From Ketchikan to Barrow." She continued to work for the Sportsman while the family moved back to Seattle in 1955, shortly before the birth of their daughter, Laura. From then until her death she lived on Mercer Island.

Dassow resigned from Sportsman in March, 1963, and thereafter did freelance editing and journalism, including several books; notably Crew of Two by Beth Eberhart (New York: Doubleday, 1961) and Handloggers with W.H. Jackson (Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing Co., 1974).

In 1970, she won the Sigma Chi Excellence in Journalism First Place Award for feature writing, for her series following the cross-country bicycle trip--from Mercer Island to New York--of Fran Call's Mercer Island Cyclemates.

In 1982, Bob Henning hired her as Senior Book Editor for Alaska Northwest Publishing, and in 1984 his Alaska Magazine published her history of the Alaska Sportsman, "The Voice of the Last Frontier." Ethel worked at the firm's Edmonds headquarters until April, 1989, shortly before Henning sold the last of his publishing business.