James Hooker Wiborg

1924 - 2015

James H. Wiborg

August 26, 1924 ~ August 1, 2015

James Hooker Wiborg was born in Seattle, Washington, on August 26, 1924, to Hazel Hooker Wiborg and John Ragnar Wiborg. The family moved to Tacoma in the twenties, and Jim graduated from Stadium High School in 1942. During his teen years, he began his life-long interest in astronomy and the workings of the universe. A skilled pianist, he performed as a young man with the Port Angeles Orchestra and entertained friends with tunes of the 30s and 40s. At University of Washington, he was president of Sigma Chi Fraternity and received a degree in Business Administration. After college he launched his first entrepreneurial venture, Wiborg Manufacturing, a steel fabricating firm. In the early 1960's, driving daily to Seattle, Jim recognized the need for an efficient commuting solution for the Puget Sound area. He founded Marine Commuter, which ran a high-speed passenger catamaran from Tacoma to Seattle for a year. Although these businesses ultimately failed, he considered these failures to be foundational experiences that supported a lifetime of business successes.

Jim's curiosity and wonder about the workings of nearly everything, combined with an orderly, disciplined mind and a capability for strategic vision, made him a skilled venture capitalist, negotiator, and business restructuring expert. He founded Western Plastics in 1953 and grew it to the largest plastics pipe company on the West Coast. In 1966, serving as President of United Pacific Company, he effected a merger with Van Waters & Rogers, resulting in Univar, now the largest chemical distribution company in the world. In 1969, he listed Univar on the NYSE, one of the highlights of his business career. Over the years, he aided many in their own business enterprises, both public and private, including serving on the boards of Seattle First National Bank, Paccar, Univar, Westin Hotels, Gensco, Northern Life Insurance, Penford, Momentum Distribution, VWR Scientific, and Penwest, among others.

Committed to the community of Tacoma throughout his life, he served as a Trustee at University of Puget Sound for 30 years, where he funded the Wiborg Physics Faculty Lab. He generously supported many community organizations, including United Way, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital/MultiCare Health System, YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, The Tacoma Art Museum, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Thea Foss Maritime Museum, and the Goodwill of Tacoma. He was also a major donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian.

While known for his business acumen and accomplishments, Jim's personal passion was his work on Theoria Primaria, a unified field theory of time and space, which he considered his magnum opus. He spent many hours on his boats Altair and Auriga and at his vacation homes in Hawaii and Lakebay working through the complex mathematics required for his theory. Boating was a life-long passion as well, and his family has happy and humorous memories of fires at the beach and boating adventures and misadventures.

With much to be proud of, Jim remained humble and approachable, full of humor and incisive in thought. Those who worked with him experienced a man who could quickly identify the critical elements of a business problem and set a course that others felt empowered to implement. He made all that he did a constructive and rewarding act of building. His passion for building extended to his Tacoma farm, where he constructed a lake, a waterfall, a scaled version of a Norman tower, and a windmill. Every year, following the tradition set by his father, he erected a 40-foot Christmas tree at the west end of North 46th street for all to enjoy.

Over his lifetime, Jim built wealth, which he defined not as net worth but as, in his own words, "a walk by the lake, the Christmas Tree, the waterwheel, mushrooms, a sunset, the Beach, children laughing, your first outboard, skiing, Puamana, an evening by the fireplace in the library, the fun of building an upside-down bronze lamp, barbeques at the pool and fires on the deck at the Beach, loved ones, memories, and much more."

Jim was a dedicated and loving father, whose integrity was an inspiration to his family. In the midst of his many achievements and interests, he took time to make his family a priority. Surviving him are his wife and life partner of 67 years, Ann Rogers Wiborg; his four children, Katherine Davis (Mike), Mimi Green (Larry), Caroline Haydu (Joe), and John Wiborg (Lesa); 17 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held at Immanuel Presbyterian Church 909 North J Street Tacoma, WA at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday August 15, 2015. A reception to celebrate his life will be held immediately after at the Tacoma Yacht Club. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the James H. Wiborg Memorial Fund at the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation.