Meet Helen Hogan

and Jeanne Sweeney

They meet again after 59 years.

Two childhood pals meet again and we can share their moment of delight.

Helen Watson Hogan and Jeanne Fazio Sweeney discovered each other for the first time since graduation from Highline High School when they met recently at the Rainier Golf Club.

Helen is the mother of nine children. Jeanne is the mother of eight children and was editor of the West Seattle Herald, The White Center News and the Highline Times. They first met as students at Mt. View Elementary.

They graduated from Highline in 1948.

Meet Ted Fosberg

This avuncular 72-year-old resident of Three Tree Point with the Santa face, twinkling eyes and full head of snow white hair is the welder, blacksmith, handyman who built and installed the benches in front of B Scoop ice cream parlor in Olde Burien.

So what? How come? Well, he is the father of Mike Fosberg, new principal of Highline High and father-in-law of Ashley Fosberg, who started and runs the ice cream parlor.

More? Well he is also International President of Sons of Norway, a 70,000 member insurance company and service group dedicated to preserve the history and culture of Norway worldwide.

Building benches is not what he did for a living. He just happens to love crafts and even went to South Seattle Community College to learn welding and blacksmithing.

He is retired from a 35-year career of chemical engineering, 15 years at Boeing and 20 at a Boeing offshoot called Resources Conservation.

Funny thing, he decided on that path after his railroad engineer uncle took the 4-year-old boy aboard his coal-fired steam engine at Union Pacific and opened up the firebox door of the roaring blast furnace. It scared the kid mightily but it was then he discovered what engineers do and embarked on his goal.

He was so quick with math in school he chose chemical engineer instead of Casey Jones stuff and went on to get his doctorate in the field.

Maybe some close calls tinkering with chemicals had a bearing on his choice. He once poured water into a builder's bucket of quick lime and it exploded in his face, narrowly escaping blindness.

And when he was 8 he found some gasoline in the garage and foolishly threw a match in it. His right leg was burned severely but there was no lifetime disability.

Does he fit the stereotypical Norwegian? Well, yes and no. He admits he spends money under great duress and loves dancing, story telling, conversation and folk art.

He would not object to Burien annexing Ballard but is not so sure about White Center even though that is where he lived until his family moved to the Bremerton area.

He is also a member of the Burien Parks Board.