Jack Hill: 1914-2017
March 29th, 2017

Jack Hill: 1914-2017

In 2008 I had the privilege of interviewing Jack Hill, an Anacortes native who at the time held the distinction of being the only living man to have worked on the construction of both Shell and Texaco refineries. Hill passed away on March 23, 2017 at the age of 102. The following is an excerpt from the 2008 interview:

Hill, who was born and raised on March Point, spoke with a sentimental recollection of his childhood days – and the life-changing arrival of the refineries. Hill’s father, who was in the cannery business, met his mother in Anacortes. They were married and had two sons, Charles born in 1912 and Jack in 1914. Hill’s father bought a ten-acre stump ranch on March Point about 1920. “We had chores to do,” Hill said of his childhood there. Like many other families in the area, the family had two or three pigs, cows and a team of horses. There were also 1,000 chickens. “We’d trade Archie Allen, the grocer, for food. Sixteen cents per dozen eggs. We didn’t buy many groceries.” Hill went eight years to Fidalgo Grade School and graduated from Anacortes High School in 1933. He played some football and basketball, playing on the state championship team in 1930. Hill served as student body president his senior year. Times were tough after graduation. “When you go through the Depression you spend a lot of time looking for jobs,” Hill recalls. “I worked at canneries and mills in Alaska, the first time in 1934 in the Bering Sea. I followed that line of business for quite a few years. I worked at the Bremerton Navy Yard, then when the war started at the Associated Shipbuilders Shipyard in Seattle. We built mine sweepers and submarine tenders.” After the war his teams mothballed decommissioned Navy ships, including aircraft carriers. “I was anxious to get out of Seattle,” he said. “So in 1948 we moved to March Point, to a little stump ranch. I was working for a little shipyard owned by Foss.” When they started building the Shell refinery (1954), Hill and his brother jumped at the chance to work construction. He recalls that at one point in the refinery project, “the mud was waist-deep if you stepped in the wrong place. You had to wade through mud to get to machinery that had been placed by crane on pedestals. On November 3, 1955 the temperature went to zero,” he said. “They called it a million-dollar freeze-up. There were no steam lines or steam tracing. Texaco would take advantage of that lesson, getting their underground work done first, and steam tracing. My brother had been doing the same thing,” Hill said. “When the project was finished Shell hired him. But they told me they didn’t hire relatives, so I went back to work for Foss.” A year later Texaco arrived on the scene. “When Texaco came in, they called a meeting for Point residents, put their cards on the table,” said Hill. “They wanted to buy everything between Shell and the railroad tracks. There were no jobs at that time,” he noted. “Fish were getting scarce, canneries were closing. There were no steady jobs around. Texaco came in at a time when we needed the work here, that’s for sure. I sold my property to them … twenty acres and two houses.” When construction began on the second March Point refinery, Hill went back to work as a millwright. “I went to work at Texaco on a Monday morning,” he quipped, “and stayed there twenty years.” Hill’s recollection of the project at The Texas Company (Texaco) refinery site was that the construction “went much faster, much easier and much cleaner.” This time, when the project was complete, there was an offer that would change his life. “I’d been looking for a steady job all my life, and I finally found one,” he said. “Texaco was a good company to work with … a pension plan, benefits and vacation time. They treated me real well.” (Photo of Mr. Hill from 2008 with a framed aerial photograph of March Point)

Steve Berentson

About Photographer Steve Berentson

A fourth generation Skagit County native who was moved kicking and screaming from this island community in 1960. I finally reclaimed an Anacortes address in 1980, and I have been in constant celebration of my return since that time. Many of us who call Anacortes home love Fidalgo Island for its natural assets: among them are rugged beaches, pristine lakes, thousands of acres of forestland and some awesome views of the Skagit Valley and surrounding islands. Another element of my love affair with this community is its people, both natives and immigrants. They will “star” in many of my journal entries.

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