Hagbart "Bert" Stole

Hagbart “Bert” Stole was born in Seattle, WA on August 18, 1931, to Alf Benjamin Stole and Dagny Kinden Stole who immigrated from Norway several years before.  Hagbart was their third and youngest child.

Before starting his adult career as a building contractor he worked as a newspaper delivery boy (receiving Newspaper Boy of the Year award at age 11 in Seattle), he worked at the Playland Carnival in Seattle after school and on weekends, sold appliances and commercially fished in Alaska.

When he was sixteen, he traveled with his parents back to Sandsoy Island, in the North Sea, on the coast of Norway which was his parent’s homeland.  He loved meeting his extended family in Norway. He reveled in the fishing and farming without the modern conveniences of electricity, plumbing and automobiles at the time.  He fondly remembered the teenagers dancing on the dock to fiddle music on summer nights. He spent a year in Norway and treasured that experience all of his life. He said the experience on Sandsoy in Norway at age 16 made him the man he became.

While attending the University Of Washington, planning to major in medicine, he met Alice Muriel Foutch.  She was the love of his life. They married in 1952 and were married for 62 years until her death in 2014. They loved raising three daughters - Leslie Ann Stole (married to Allen Jorgensen), Janice Elaine Crosby and Carol Stole Fagerlie (married to Jim Fagerlie).  In later years, they traveled extensively to many parts of Europe and visited family each year in Norway.

Hagbart, along with his father, started Stole Building Company in 1955 and built many neighborhoods, custom homes and office buildings in the greater Seattle area. Hagbart was a skilled craftsman and was often requested by architects to build custom homes that were complex and detailed.  He savored the challenge.

He loved golf and played up until the last several months before his death. He belonged to Everett Golf and Country Club and after moving from Edmonds Washington, he joined the Walla Walla Country Club.

In addition to his three daughters, Hagbart is survived by grandchildren - Amy Berry, Claire Kotnour, Samuel Crosby, Erika Lara, Eileen Crosby, James Crosby, Micah Thoms, Alice Crosby, Tim Kotnour.  He has six great-grandchildren and five step great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by grandchildren Allison Kotnour and Stacy Ann Kotnour.

Hagbart was wise, loving and full of humor. He is and will be greatly missed by his family and friends.

A Funeral Service will be held on August 30, 2019, 1:00 PM, at the Chapel of the Herring Funeral Home. A brief graveside service will follow at Mountain View Cemetery.

Memorial Contributions may be made to St. Jude’s Children's Hospital through the Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder Street, Walla Walla, WA 99362.