Jon Marvin Jonsson has called Ballard his home for nearly 83 years and has gathered many unique stories along the way. His stories include being discharged from the armed forces twice before the age of 20, gaining a reputation as a lawyer for prostitutes, becoming an accidental politician, climbing Mt. Rainier twice, investing in a little company in Kirkland called "Microsoft", and more.

At 83, Jonsson is still practicing law and gathering stories.

Born in 1928, Jón Marvin Jónsson was the second baby to be born in the Ballard Hospital.

His parents were Icelandic and Jonsson recalls doing what he was told, which was to "not leave the yard and mingle with foreigners". By "foreigners" his mother meant non-icelandic kids.

"When I got to grade school I couldn't understand what the kids were saying. I only spoke icelandic," Jonsson said. "I had a D in English all through junior high and high school."

A former Seattle P.I. paperboy of the year, Jonsson was clever but an awful student.

At the end of high school, at age 17, Jonsson entered the Navy but was discharged before even attending training.

"We just received a letter that basically said 'Thank you but we don't need you'," he said.

So Jonsson enlisted in the Marine Corp instead.

"The nice thing about the Marine Corp is that it's like going to jail," he said. "I was 17 and only interested in girls but they didn't want anything to do with us because you were a "here today, gone tomorrow" kind of guy."

After only 14 months, Jonsson was offered a choice of going to China or take a discharge.

With the Korean War looming, Jonsson took the discharge and petitioned for a Veteran entrance into college.

"I did my school school work for a change and decided I wanted to major in anthropology because I wanted to study Native Americans," he said.

Jonsson switched to accounting however because he worked well with numbers and there was money to be made in the banking business. In graduate school, he took law as a side class and discovered he had found something he liked.

He graduated in the top third of the law class at the University of Washington and started looking for ways to kick start his legal career.

He rented "a closet" in a law firm so he could have a business address and started doing criminal defense work. He soon developed a reputation for representing prostitutes.

"They were all so-called "nice girls" and they worked downtown," he said. "I would get $200 for a retainer. At the time, prostitutes were the only good clients I had."

He said that officials simply wanted prostitutes out of Seattle. So Jonsson would bring a one-way train ticket to San Francisco with him to court. He would plead guilty and ask for a suspended sentence and then he would show his ticket to the judge and promise that he would personally drop the woman off at the station.

"And I would do that. I would drive them to the station and see them off but whether they got off at Tacoma or the next stop wasn't my responsibility," he said.

After three or four years of representing prostitutes, Jonsson opened his own office in Snoqualmie.

In 1959, Jonsson ran for the office of State Representative. He did this not because he was genuinely interested in a political career but because he wanted to move his practice to Ballard and needed a way to advertise himself.

"It was unethical to advertise the way people do now. In my campaign I could promote how good of a lawyer I was and that I was now in Ballard and then people would know," he said. "I wasn't there to get elected."

But his plan backfired.

Jonsson ran as a democrat and at that time labor unions were flocking to the polls to vote for the right to work. Jonsson was elected and instead of moving to Ballard, he had to go to Olympia. (see slideshow for photo).

Jonsson enjoyed being a representative but after losing the following elections, he gladly returned to Ballard and his practice.

Seattle had the highest Icelandic population in the U.S. at that time and Jonnson became Consul for Iceland, a position that took three years to be approved by the city of Seattle and which he still holds today.

He's also still involved in the Icelandic Club and continues to practice law.

"He still comes in every day and most weekends," said his son and law partner, Geir Jonsson.

"He was definitely a workaholic although it's not work to him. He likes to say that he stopped working the day he got out of law school."

Louis Larsen, the former head of the Northwest Marine Trade Association, is a client and friend of Jonsson who has known him since high school.

"Marv is a fine gentleman. We counted heavily on his expertise and valuable consultation," he said. "He's a real fixture in Ballard and I'm glad he stayed."

Despite his many trip to Iceland, Jonsson has always considered Ballard his home.

"He's been around for a long time and he just loves Ballard," said Geir.

When asked what made him return to Ballard after brief periods of relocation, Jonsson said, "It's my home. Period."

(Click on photo to start slideshow)