Dean Tonkin uses uncommon words, like polymath. The dictionary defines it as "a person of great or varied learning," and that defines Dean Tonkin.
He was born in Portland, Ore., in 1942 to Cora Otellia Espeseth Morgan, nicknamed Cody. An English teacher, she did not marry until she was older because she wanted to continue teaching; the law still forbade married women to teach. She was 40 when Dean was born.
Dean's father, John Morgan, was a Canadian who served in the Canadian aviation forces during World War II. He was killed in the war before Dean was born.
"I don't remember my childhood," says Dean. "I remember those years, but not as my childhood, because I func- tioned as an adult early on.
"The cleaving event between my childhood and adulthood was when I got the desire to learn," he explains, "when I was 2. I cried because I couldn't read. My mother took care of that."
In 1947, when Dean was 5, Cody married Gordon Tonkin, who adopted Dean. They moved to Vancouver, Wash., where Cody taught English at Vancouver High School and Gordon was a laborer in a paper mill. Young Dean studied ballet, which turned out to be useful in his later athletics.
To Cody's dismay, Gordon physically abused both her and Dean, so they fled to Seattle in 1951 (Cody filed for divorce in 1952). She and Dean moved often their first few years in Seattle, during which time she married a handsome and charming lounge pianist named Pryce Harriman.
In the summer of 1954, when he was 12, Dean worked at a rustic resort called Harmony Falls on the eastern shore of Spirit Lake at the foot of Mount St. Helens. He chopped wood for the cabins, cleaned the portable toilets (mere open galvanized pails) and honed his skills on the high dive.
He wasn't sad when the 1980 eruption obliterated Spirit Lake. "I owned a unique memory," he says. "I was thrilled I had a story to tell," which he did in the Seattle Weekly.
Also in 1954, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets was released - a "momentous" event in Dean's life. A musician himself, soon he was playing bass in a rock 'n' roll band that he claims was the first in the Northwest, the Frantics. (Dean also plays the piano, harmonica, combs and spoons.)
Cody and Dean settled on Queen Anne in 1956, without Pryce, in the Highland Crest Apartments. "Mrs. Harriman," as Cody was known, got a job at Queen Anne High School (QAHS) teaching English, speech and poetry.
Unfortunately, Pryce, too, had turned out to be an abuser. The Harrimans divorced in 1958 and Cody never married again. She taught at QAHS until her retirement in 1974, and lived in the same apartment for the rest of her 95-year life.
Dean attended QAHS, but most of his classmates did not immediately make the connection between him and his mother because their last names were different. He played several sports, edited the school newspaper and earned honor-roll grades.
During his growing-up years, Dean's religion changed several times. Like many people of Norwegian heritage, his mother was a Lutheran, but she sent him to Catholic elementary schools "for the discipline." In high school he became a Lutheran again, "because a girl I liked was Lutheran," then studied Buddhism, "because another girl I liked was Buddhist."
Another girl he liked was named Barbara Cherberg. "Barbara was a Queen Anne girl from the get-go," he says. "Her father built the house she grew up in. We had one date in high school, but I was a jerk."
He graduated from QAHS in 1960 and "cowboyed" for the summer in Montana. In the fall he entered the University of Oregon in Eugene on a football scholarship.
"But I got too beat up playing football," he says, "so I transferred to UW my sophomore year." He abandoned football in favor of golf and track, specializing in the javelin, and majored in chemistry with an eye toward medical school.
Walking across campus one day, he ran into Barbara Cherberg. "I should repair the damage of that disastrous date," he thought, and he did. Soon the two were pinned, then engaged.
One year before graduation, Dean changed his major to communications, because he had received a job offer in that field. "I had a job a lot sooner than I would have had if I had gone to med school," he says.
He graduated from UW in 1964, as did Barbara (she with a degree in business education). They were married in July and moved to New York City, where he started his job as a copywriter for J. Walter Thompson, then the world's largest advertising agency.
The couple returned to Seattle in 1966. Over the years, Dean worked for numerous companies in advertising, marketing and public relations as a writer, producer and director. He worked in various media as well as the music industry. He was a partner in a closed-circuit television company in Canada in 1985-86, then founded Toucan Communications in 1988.
His work earned many prestigious awards, including an Emmy and a Clio.
"I enjoy producing music the most," he says. He wrote the music for a series of Olympia Beer commercials that featured Ray Charles. "Ray mentions my work in his book, 'Brother Ray,'" says Dean. "He calls them songs, not jingles." Dean also wrote songs in Spanish for José Feliciano. Besides English, Dean speaks "poquito Spanish, lille Norwegian, bisse German and Canadian, eh."
Recently he co-wrote an ASCAP-registered song entitled "Don't Ever Change," which he and his composer collaborator, Stephen Barnes, hope will find its way into a Broadway musical.
Dean also writes unaccompanied words: short stories and poems. He recently sent off submissions to the literary journals Glimmer Train Stories and The Barcelona Review.
Throughout his career, he also fit in military service, patented inventions and ski race coaching.
He joined the Army National Guard in 1966 - marching, doing KP and driving large vehicles. In 1970 he switched to the Navy Reserves, serving as a public affairs officer. He served his ACDUTRA (two weeks of active duty per year) at such assignments as the Pentagon, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and in Hollywood working on Navy-related film productions.
Dean has patented eight inventions to date. The first, in 1990, dubbed Tubind, is a bookbinding machine that uses laser technology. The most recent, called Ovall, is a golf putting-practice device. He has played golf most of his life, and now boasts a handicap ranging from +0.3 to -2.2.
He also has been a ski racing coach and instructor for many years at Alpental. He's proud to say that he coached Debbie Armstrong before she joined the U.S. Olympic team and went on to win the gold medal in the women's giant slalom at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo.
All the while, he and Barbara have sustained their marriage. He marvels at that fact, since he grew up without a stable father figure. The two built a house on west Queen Anne where they reared their two children, Kimberly (born 1969) and Tyler (born 1971). Both are now married, have three young children between them and live on Queen Anne as well.
Barbara, recently retired after working with the Seattle Public Schools for more than 20 years, is now a full-time grandmother. "But I'm not built not to work," says Dean. For the past three years he has worked for Consolidated Supply Company's plumbing and heating distribution branch in Ballard. He was hired as a flatbed truck driver (his Army experience came in handy), but he was switched to sales and marketing when his boss found out about his background.
Having a job now is better than having a career, says Dean. "Jobs give you more freedom and serenity," he says. "Careers jeopardize your family life; you're married to a career." He doesn't regret having had a career, but at this age a job suits him.
"Getting ahead is no longer a factor," he says. "No more scheming.
"We are architects of our lives," he philosophizes. "We are always building and remodeling ourselves. We need plenty of doors and windows to let life in."
As a polymath, he has.
[[In-content Ad]]
