Daily Sitka Sentinel

Lloyd Hames

By Sentinel Staff
    Lloyd Hames is remembered by friends and family as a “visionary businessman,” a man who was dedicated to his customers and employees, and as someone who always put his family first.
    Hames, 86, died April 12, 2013, at the Sitka Pioneers Home. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. April 19 at Prewitt’s Funeral Home.
    Services will be held at noon Saturday, April 20, at the Assembly of God Church. A lunch will follow.
    His son, Roger Hames, says he learned many important lessons from his father, both in life and in business.
    “The first thing I learned was always take time for your family. He believed that, as busy as he was,” said Roger. “I learned never to be sitting in the office. He would say, ‘It doesn’t happen in the office. It happens with the employees and with the customers. Listen to what they have to say, and what they have to suggest.’”
    Lloyd F. Hames was born June 26, 1927, in Sprague, Wash., the son of Luther Lee Hames and Vivian (Johnson) Hames.
    He attended grade school in Lamont, Wash., and graduated from high school in Rosalia, Wash. After serving with the U.S. Army in the post-war occupation forces in Japan, he attended Washington State University for one and a half years before moving to Sitka in June 1949 to join the C.R. Rands Co.
    He married Barbara Rands of Sitka on Jan. 7, 1950, in the Sitka Presbyterian Church.
    Roger said that his father often floated ideas with Barbara, and gave her a lot of credit for his success.
    “There were a tremendous amount of ideas he would talk to her about,” Roger said. “She was always the one filling in the valleys – he would go peak to peak, with ideas and thoughts. Mom would keep him grounded, and fill in the valleys. She took care of us, and (the home). She was a huge part of his success. She was the rock, she was always there. She was dad’s balance. ... It’s that saying: behind every good man is a good woman. That was the case with my mom.”
    The family described Lloyd Hames as “a visionary, who saw a need and tried to fill it.”
    “He wanted to make a difference in everything he did,” Barbara Hames said.
    While building his family business into Sitka’s largest grocery retailer with two locations, Sitka Sea Mart and Market Center, he was an adviser and president on many boards, and was active in the Republican Party and the Sitka Rotary Club, where he served as president.
    Fellow Rotary Club member Dan Jones remembers him as someone who was always active in general, and always thinking, and as a man who played an active role in his business, from stocking shelves, to powerwashing the driveway, to shoveling snow.
     “I remember wandering into the store one night around 10:30, you’d find him there doing construction work,” Jones said. “He was a hands-on guy.” Jones said he doesn’t know if people realized Lloyd Hames’ other interests, including his support of Sheldon Jackson College and other organizations.
    “He was busier behind the scenes than you realized,” Jones said.
    Fellow businessman Roger Higley, who’s known Lloyd for 50 years, agreed with Jones’ comments about Lloyd’s dedication to his work and business.
    “He was never afraid to do anything,” Higley said. “He was a seven-day-a-week type of worker. Like his son Roger.”
    Roger Hames said he admired his father’s work ethic, and spent many hours working alongside him.
    “No grass grew under his feet,” Roger said. “If you wanted time with him you had to do what he was doing, and work right beside him. ... I would tell him: ‘First, you’re a father to me, then a boss, then a co-worker. It was hard to keep that straight.”
    Roger said his dad took on any job and led by example. “He was never above anything or anyone.”
    As a businessman, Roger said his father was always looking for ways to improve the business, or find a better way of getting the job done. He said Lloyd would often wake up in the middle of the night to ponder a problem, go back to sleep, and woke up in the morning with a solution.
    Lloyd was named Grocer of the Year for Washington and Alaska in 1976, and in the same year he received an honorary doctorate degree from Alaska Pacific University.
    In 1978 he was awarded the Sitka Chamber of Commerce’s highest award, the Cossack Cap.
    He served two years as State Commissioner of Corrections after he was appointed to that position by Gov. Walter Hickel in 1990.
    Lloyd served 43 years on the Sheldon Jackson College Board of Trustees, and was presented the SJ Christian Citizenship Award in 1995. The college honored him by naming its new athletic building the Hames Physical Education Center.
    In his time away from work, Lloyd loved to hunt pheasants and ducks with friends in South Dakota and eastern Washington. He was also an avid golfer and fisherman.
    “He worked hard, and played hard,” Roger said.
    Roger said his father set an example to him and others of “high morals, and high integrity, a strong work ethic.”
    “He said character is what you have, and you’ve got to protect that,” Roger said. “Integrity and strong moral values were the legacies, they were the examples for me to follow. I’m proud of that. I have him to thank, and mom to thank for that.”
    Survivors are his wife of 63 years, Barbara Ann Hames; son Randal (Julie) Hames of Anchorage and their daughters Rosanne (Brad) McGough and their sons Braydon and Briston of Palmer, and their daughter Randi Ann of Anchorage; daughter Rhonda (Natale) Madaffari of Ketchikan, their son Byron (Renee) Hames and children Dorianne, Benjamin and  Charlotte of Midland, Texas, son Rico (Heather) Madaffari and children Paisley and Sienna, Chesapeake, Va.; son Roger (Mary) Hames and son Andrew (Kristin) Hames and children Justin and Morgan, Black Foot, Idaho, son Roger Lloyd, Murietta, Calif., son Brian (Natalie) Hames (Seattle); brother Kenneth (Vera Jean) Hames, Rosalia, Wash.; sister Helen (Richard) Wyer, Kennewick, Wash.; sister Fern (Don) Kopf,  of Walla Walla, Wash., their son David  of Walla Walla, and daughters Kathy of Walla Walla and Karyl (John) Whiteley of Kennewick, Wash.; and nephews Raymond and Richard McCabe, Jurgen (Tammy) Thomsen, and Lee (Sherry) Hames.
    He was preceded in death by sisters Ethelee McCabe and Betty Iverson.
    Roger commented that Saturday’s service will be a celebration of life.
    “We’re sad, we’ve lost him but we’re comforted to know he’s not suffering anymore, he’s in his Creator’s arms. The family will all pull together and enjoy the weekend, and share the great times and great memories,” Roger said. He also said he wanted to thank the community for the support.
    “That’s been comforting, and it goes a long way,” Roger said.