The Columbian’s stories, the latest on May 26 “Christensen founder, ex-officers sue new owner,” regarding the financial collapse of Christensen Shipyards, have focused on assigning blame. Lost in the details are two things: The pain of the families involved in the job losses, and the tarnished reputation of the Christensen family.
There are conflicting opinions, and unanswered questions, regarding what happened. What should not be questioned is the character of, and contributions to the community, made by Dave Christensen. Christensen built the shipyard from the ground up and fed a lot of families in doing so. He fed mine for 27 years. He quietly donated to numerous charities over the years.
I can vividly remember an example of Christensen’s way of thinking. Dave Christensen had a policy of buying each employee a turkey for Thanksgiving. When the company grew to the point that it was more efficient to hand out vouchers for turkeys, Christensen rebuked the suggestion. He told management we were missing the point. He said we needed to physically hand the turkey to the employee, look them in the eye, and say “thank you” for their hard work.
I will never forget that lesson. Christensen and his family are good people. Let’s not forget that either.
