Ole Taug Jr,

1929 - 2023

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Ole Taug, Jr. December 31, 1929 - July 18, 2023
Ole was born on New Year's Eve in Tenakee Springs, Alaska to Florence Nelson Taug and Ole Taug, Sr. He was the youngest of their boys: Frank Nelson, Emil Taug, and Herluff Taug. Ole grew up in Tenakee Springs on Chichagof Island attending all eight grades in the one room schoolhouse. After his elementary years he went to Sitka to attend high school but dropped out part way into his first year of high school. He started working on Mt. Edgecumbe building housing for the federal government. It was here that he met his wife, Mary Stevenson, who was attending Sheldon Jackson high school. He once shared the story that he saw this young lady walking near the SJ campus and thought she was very pretty ... and when she looked at him and smiled that was it!
They married in the fall of 1950. At that time his father, Ole, was superintendent of Superior Packing Company, five miles out of Tenakee. He hired him to come work for him. Mary and Ole moved from Sitka with their young baby, Shirley, and worked at Superior for the next five years. When their oldest daughter was about to begin school they moved once again to Tenakee Springs so she could attend the same one room schoolhouse her Dad attended. By then the young couple had two more children, "Sonny" (Ole Taug III) and Barbara. And Mary was pregnant with daughter "Flossie" (Florence) who would be born in Tenakee as her father had been. Weather was the issue (for flights). While living in Tenakee they built a house on the beach, the "old-fashioned way" the town of men came to help and the women made the meals to feed the workers.
Ole also worked for the general store, Snyder Mercantile Company; and ran Totem Seafood Company (a crab cannery) in Tenakee. Other odd jobs he held when it was not crab season was working on a rigging scow, also out of Superior Cannery; for a time he had his own fishing boat; he worked for a logging company, and also delivered fuel to homes in Tenakee and checked on the local light plant to make sure the homes were not only warm from oil deliveries, but also had electricity. His family grew to include three more boys: Jakob, Richard and Ronald. And soon most of their children were ready for high school,. The first year, Shirley attended Sheldon Jackson in Sitka and when her brother Ole was high school age, their friends, Walter and Genevieve Soboleff, who lived in Juneau (where Reverend Soboleff was a minister at the Presbyterian Church) offered to foster their two oldest children while they attended Juneau Douglas High School. The Soboleff's had a cabin in Tenakee and spent summers living there. By the time Barbara was ready to begin high school, Ole and Mary thought that the family was too split up by this time, and decided to pull up stakes and move to "the big city". Juneau then became their permanent home.
Ole worked construction; some of the companies he worked for were Kelly-Ryan and T.O. Paddock. Ole was a pile buck. Some of his jobs included building Naval housing on the Aleutian Islands. He also worked on many of the ferry docks around Southeast Alaska. Always a fisherman at heart, he had a sports fishing boat and after he and Mary retired they spent many hours on the water dragging a herring or two. Their early life in Superior and Tenakee, he spent feeding his young and growing family "off the land" - eating the best the waters and land could offer: salmon, herring, shrimp, crab, blueberries, salmonberries, ptarmigan, deer, and growing a potato garden.
Ole passed the late afternoon of July 18, 2023. His Granddaughter Maria had just stopped to visit him and she said, "Grandpa was his old self - laughing, joking and just in a good mood." After she left, his daughter, Barbara was getting him ready for dinner when he had a heart attack. His heart was ready to join Mom. He said many times he missed her and wanted to "join her". As a family friend commented, "they are now dancing together in Heaven.
Ole was predeceased by his father Ole, who was full Norwegian; and his mother, Florence, who was full Tlingit Indian. Other family who went before him were: his brothers, Frank, Emil and Herluff; his wife Mary, his two sons, Jakob and Richard. He also talked many hours of the time he spent working with many of his good friends in the construction business. Tommy Paddock, Jr., still keeps (kept) in touch with him, reliving memories of the good 01' days. Per Ole's request there will be no service. He wondered out loud many times why people came to a funeral and spoke highly of the deceased, yet never (or rarely) said those same words to them when they were alive here on Earth. Dad, we all hope we let you know we loved you. And thank you for always providing for our Family as a Father should do. May your life in the Great Beyond - with Mom – be as if you two just met.