Asmund Gjevik

1939 - 2020

Asmund Helge Gjevik
February 25, 1939 - September 29, 2020
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done…. Walt Whitman
On September 29th, 2020, his life shortened by cancer, Asmund Helge Gjevik of Novato, California set sail into the great beyond surrounded by the love of his life, family, and friends.
Asmund was born at home on the tiny island of Skjærvoya in Northern Norway on February 25th,1939 and survived the difficult German occupation while his father was interned. He attended grammar school in a one-room schoolhouse, completed homework by oil lamp and slept on a straw mattress.
He was related to many of the other islanders, and almost all of his ancestors were fishermen. Asmund learned of the sea from his father who had a small fishing boat with a diesel engine and tiny cabin. In addition, his parents owned and managed half of the sheep on the island and a share in the family store. While there, he obtained his first camera. Those years shaped the man to come.
At the age of 16, Asmund spent all of his earnings on a single semester with a Norwegian merchant marine training program. This barely qualified him as an ordinary seaman's apprentice, allowing him to hire on with a freighter, leaving the island for good.
After a few years spent traveling the world, Asmund took a job with Windjammer Cruises of Miami, Florida as an experienced deckhand. The company sailed tall ships around the Caribbean. Asmund quickly found he had a knack for sailing and a personality that kept him in good graces. He rose to first mate, and became a skilled scuba diver before the risks were fully understood. While onboard he met his first wife, Millicent, who worked as a stewardess, and made life-long friends.
Millie and "Jimmy" Gjevik settled on St. Croix USVI with their newborn daughter in 1967 where they remained for the next 20 years. Quick to make friends, they worked at two popular hotel beach resorts while enjoying the island life of deepsea fishing, snorkeling, diving, sailing and photography.
In the early 1970s Asmund started work at Hess Oil as a sand blaster, but quickly moved to the marine department, working his way up to become a tugboat captain and ultimately a ship's pilot. Like most things that he accomplished so effortlessly, he learned on his own through constant, but relaxed practice. Comfortable handling the largest supertankers, he set his sights higher and became a pilot with the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association in 1989.
Once, on a major vessel riding the ebb from the bay without tugs, the chief engineer reported a man down and imminent hydraulic steering failure. Asmund overrode the captain's instinct, and unequivocally demanded steerage for ninety seconds. With the crew in a near-panic and the captain worried, Asmund calmly requested a specific rudder adjustment before allowing the steering to be shut down. Both the crew member and the Golden Gate Bridge survived.
He made many friends at the SFBP including marrying his current wife, Jeannie Cox in 1997 and retiring in 2007. Jeannie shared Asmund's voracious love of life and adventure. They travelled extensively while Asmund maintained his life-long passions of photography, diving, and sailing.
It is said that adventure awaits those who harness the spirit of the wind. Asmund did not travel to escape life, but instead to assure life would not escape him. He sailed in all weather and survived several hurricanes under mast. He knew storms draw something out of us that calm waters do not. They say still waters run deep and this was certainly true of Asmund, a man of few words, who loved deeply, and always had a twinkle in his eye. Never one to draw attention to himself he is greatly respected by those whose life he has touched.
A dear friend of Asmund's wrote these words which describe him with such deep insight: "One of the things I will miss most about As is his liberal intellect. He was so well informed and he gave such thought to the information he took in. His opinions were shaped by what was best for everyone and the world at large. He was a truly fair and open hearted man. I will miss my conversations with him so very much. He enlightened my thinking".
In this final voyage, we lift a glass as you sail off into the sunset, may you have fair winds and following seas. You will be greatly missed but your legacy lives on. O Captain! my Captain!
He is preceded in death by his parents Dine and Abraham Gjevik, survived by his wife Jeannie, daughter Lisa (Douglas) Ward, grandchildren Sommer, Raven, Aurora, Alexander, Evan and Ian of Alaska, sisters Eldrid and Aud, brother Kjell, numerous nieces and nephews of Norway and cousin Jarry Shervo of Massachusetts.
In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation in his name to either the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the California Academy of Science, Hospice by the Bay or Doctors Without Borders.
A service in his memory will be arranged at a time in the future when we can all gather safely.