Edward Orkney’s Story
What made my father pursue a dream of having his own store? Why didn’t he return from serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II and go back to college on the G.I. Bill, as so many veterans did? Then, jobs would have opened up to him.
Instead, his dream inspired him to go-for-broke. He was involved with the startup of at least 3 stores that did not work out, prior to G.I. Joe’s. This was not an easy path for a man with a young family to support.
I can only guess what his motivation was, because he didn’t say. In general, men of his generation did not talk about their feelings and dreams, especially to their kids. Instead, they simply set out to be providers for their families and did not talk about it.
For some history, my dad, Edward Malcolm Orkney, was born in 1915 to Mary and Roydon Orkney. His mother, Mary, was very artistic and studied painting in San Francisco and Paris. Dad’s father, Roydon, was a businessman and one who was willing to take risks. They met and married in the San Jose, California area in 1900. Around 1907, Roydon and Mary relocated from San Jose, to the boomtown of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan in Canada, and Roydon started a mercantile store. Eventually, they traveled across the Canadian prairie with their three boys, to Edmonton, Alberta, where Roydon opened another dry goods store. Then, he opened yet another store in the growing town of Edson, Alberta, and the last one he started was in Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
My uncle, Sydney Orkney shared this information with my cousin, Mary Orkney Conlon. What Uncle Syd did not share was how long the stores were in operation and when they were closed. My uncle did say that the Gold Rush in Alaska was quite a lure for my grandfather. He and a business friend decided to go seek their fortune there. Roydon left Dad’s mother, Mary, in charge of whatever stores remained while he was gone.
They did not find gold. Roydon returned and eventually sold the last store which was in Edmonton, and the family moved to Hoquiam, Washington. Hoquiam/Aberdeen was another booming area because of logging, and Roydon opened a general store there.
It was in Hoquiam that Dad was born in 1915, the youngest of six brothers. The stock market crash of 1929 happened shortly before he turned 14. The Great Depression, which followed the crash, and lasted until World War II, really made an impact on him.
One consequence of the Depression was that it was hard for Dad to get a college degree. At least 2 of his older brothers graduated from the University of Washington, and went on to find good jobs. When it was Dad’s time to go to college, he also went to the University of Washington, but had to work full-time to pay for it. He eventually dropped out to look for better-paying work.
Dad joined the Army Reserves in 1941, according to my aunt, Joey Hadfield (who incidentally, owned G.I. Stores in Salem in the 1960’s and 1970’s). After World War II started, Dad‘s service status was changed from the Reserves to the regular army.
Also around that time, my father met my mother, Charmian Munson, in a bookkeeping class in Hoquiam, and in 1942, they married.
In the army my father took the test for Officers’ Training and passed, and he was accepted into the Army Air Corps. He became a pilot and flew 52 bombing missions in the South Pacific, before he returned to civilian life in 1945.
I know that, after the war, the goal of financial security was a major motivation for my father. His difficulties in getting an advanced education and finding good work, as a young adult during the Depression, must have been central in his mind.
Dad’s family history of having his father open a series of at least five general stores, must have also encouraged his dream. I am sure that his father’s example made it seem a possible thing to do.
I have also heard through my family that my father was in friendly competition with his older brothers, especially James. Sadly two of his brothers died in their thirties, Donald in an Army Air Corps glider crash at the end of World War II and Douglas in an auto accident. That left Dad with three older brothers.
These brothers were Woolston, James and Sydney. Woolston, or Cork as he was nicknamed, was a salesman in Los Angeles. Jim and Syd lived in Yakima and were eventual partners in a successful insurance brokerage that Jim and another partner had started in 1937. After the war, Jim also opened a real estate agency, and briefly owned a sand and gravel company. But Jim’s largest venture was hop farming, which he began doing in the early 1940’s. My cousin Bruce Orkney, told me that his father, Jim, was the largest independent hop grower in the Yakima Valley at one time. And, this was when Yakima was the largest hop growing region in the country!
So Dad had the success of his older brothers to look up to and aspire to. I think this gave him the incentive to start his own business. What qualities did he possess that help him in this venture?
The first quality I would point to was his brain power. My dad was very intelligent. He told me he would devour library books when growing up. As my cousin Bruce, wrote to me, “We would occasionally visit Dad’s family and all five of his brothers in Hoquiam. This was in the mid to late 30’s before the war broke out.”
Bruce continued, “It was always fascinating for me to be around these Orkneys. They seemed to always be involved in heated discussions about most everything; world affairs, the economy, business, etc, and especially politics. The conversations were fun and always spirited.”
“I remember your grandmother Mary saying how much Ed enjoyed reading. She pointed to a particular chair where he usually sat, always engrossed in a book. She said he would have a big dictionary next to him and looked up every word he didn’t know.”
This background of heated family discussions must have helped him in business to analyze situations and trends. Also, his constant reading showed a desire for knowledge.
Dad had leadership qualities. Obviously, taking the Officers’ Training Course and going into the Army Air Corps helped develop his potential as a leader. And, as a B-24 bomber pilot in New Guinea in 1943 and 1944, he was squadron leader and then group squadron leader. He climbed the ranks to Captain before his discharge.
Another quality my father had was modesty. Bragging was not something he did. A simple statement of the facts was OK, but not drawing attention to oneself. I know that for at least the first 10 years and probably more, G.I. Joe’s did not buy advertising in newspapers or on the radio. Rather, Dad depended on word-of-mouth, or simply the great location of the North Portland store, so close to the Washington/Oregon Interstate Bridge. I believe that Dad not advertising in the early years, was a natural outgrowth of his modesty and basic quietness.
Dad had a great sense of responsibility for, not only his family, but for his employees. My brother, David, and I were talking recently and he told me something I find amazing. David said that in 1965, Dad invited the Retail Clerks Union to talk to employees about unionizing. This was because Dad wanted them to have good health benefits, which would be available through the union. At that time, there was just one location and not enough employees to get a good insurance plan through the business. While this action was in the employees’ best interests, I wonder how many other bosses would have done this.
Another action Dad took to benefit people who worked for him, was to start an employee stock purchase plan, after the business changed to a corporation in the early 1960’s. I can remember him talking about how he wanted to share the success of the company with those who had helped build it.
My brother suggested to me that Dad’s feeling of responsibility could have originated from his time of serving as a bomber pilot in World War II. First, there was the desire to contribute to a victory in the war, which any member of the armed services must have felt.
But as a B-24 bomber pilot, David thinks Dad felt responsible, not only for the war effort, but also for the lives of his 11 crew members. It was his job to get them back safely from a mission. He was then promoted to squadron leader, and the safety of the crews of the 9 other planes in the squadron became his responsibility, too. And, with the promotion to group squadron leader, that responsibility was again multiplied.
It must have been a natural progression from the Army Air Corps to G.I. Joe’s, for Dad to feel a responsibility for the well-being of people working for him.
Finally, there was my father, Edward Orkney’s appreciation of nature and the outdoors. He grew up in Hoquiam, surrounded by the magnificent moderate rain forest of the Pacific Northwest, even though it was being cut down at a rapid rate when he was growing up. Hoquiam was on the coast, too, at Grays Harbor, so the ocean was part of his childhood. And, his mother Mary’s father had a cabin on Hood’s Canal, where the family would spend summers. They would go clamming for abundant butter clams, or wait for the shrimp boat to come by, with fresh-caught shrimp to sell.
Dad did not hunt or fish, like so many of his customers did. Maybe he did not have time for it because of his responsibilities. But he did go hiking. Mom, Dad, and David and I would sometimes hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls around 1961.
G.I. Joe’s relationship with the outdoors was emphasized in the early 1970’s on the outside of one of the North Portland stores. A huge map of the Columbia Gorge, along with a smaller one of the Mt. Hood National Forest, dominated the wall in front of the parking lot. The business slogan at that time was, “The Outdoor World of G.I. Joe’s.”
In looking back to the beginnings of “the store,” I think my dad, Edward Orkney, had many qualities that helped him create G.I. Joe’s. Some of these qualities were his intelligence, belief in himself, and leadership abilities. He also knew that it was possible to start a business, with the examples of his father and brother going into business for themselves. And, extremely important, he had the constant support of my mother, Charmian Orkney. All of this made it possible for him to continue through many startups and setbacks, until he and G.I. Joe’s were a success.
But, I think that G.I. Joe’s also kept growing because it offered products that matched how people lived in the Northwest. Most people in Oregon and Washington love to be outdoors whether they are hiking, camping, fishing, or hunting. The original army surplus store supplied the goods to do this, like sleeping bags, tents, boots, and knapsacks, which were the prototype of today’s recreational sporting goods.
Dad’s lifelong appreciation of nature helped him to see how these G.I. surplus goods would be popular with Northwesterners.
I also think Dad’s modesty matched a basic Northwest trait. That helped make his presentation of the business work for his customers. He did not advertise in the early days. Customers had to find G.I. Joe’s on their own. Also, employees were not pushy. The store slogan was, “come in and browse around.”
And, browse around, they did. I think customers had fun in the process. I know that I did.
