February 1997

'"'Pacific
Nonhwest
S H E LL
CLT]B
The Pacific Nonhwest Shell Club
in 1960with its purwasestablished
poseto promotethe study of molluscs,the hobby of shellcollecting,
and the preservationof molluscan
specres.
VOLI.JME3T O SPECIALISSUE
FEBRUARY1997
Profile of a Sheller:
Frrl
/^
I nomas \-,. Rice
By Aretta McClure
MEETINGS
presenMeetingsfeatureeducational
tations and are held on the third
Sundayof eachmonth at the Lake
City Christian Church, 1933NE
125th,Seattle,Washington(seeexceptionsbelow).Meetingsbeginat
2 pm, but many membersarrive
shortly after1pm to talk, trade,and
buy shells.Visitors arewelcome.
Specialregularmeetingsare:
May .. Of SeaandShoreMuseum
August
ShellAuaion
December.........ChristmasParty
OFFTCERS (1996-97)
hesident
Aretta McClure o 360-765-4A34
I
Co-Wce-hesidma
Helen Grosso 432-0480
ElsieMarshallt 206-363-3219
t)
x
Treasurer
Ann Smileyo 360-887-3688
RecordingSecretary
Amy Fortson o 206-324-3649
Corresponding Secretary
ShariAlmasi o 206-323-6637
2306l2th AvenueEast,
Seattle,
\trA 98102
to
Pleasesend dl correspondence
the CorrespondingSecretary.All
to
correspondence
andsubmissions
TheDredgingsshould be mailedto:
Roben Forsyth
Box 37, 1700- 56th Street,Delta,
BC, CanadaV4L 2N4
Phone/fax: 604-948-9965
rforsyth@axionet.com
Ne' v
Aoonrss!
OctoberafternoonTom
finthe
(7
had arr:angedforme to in""dI
terview him, I droveacrossthe Hood
Canal Bridge in slashi''g rain and, a
mile further nofth, slowedto accommodate the 25 M.P.H.sign at the
entrance to Port Gamble. Notby,
another sign reads:
Sept.1853
Establisbed
Historic Northuest Lumber Toam
Autumn leaves,tattered bngues
of flame, dattcedon wet branchesof
trees tossedby a fresh wind. Once
again, I felt transported back one
hun&ed years or mor€ b a slower
and quieter time. The town, too,
seems transported from an early
New England site. 'Wood-framed
houses rise, beautifully proportioned and mellow, from spacious
parls of green.Those in the cemetery sleepup on the hill. Tourisa had
departed and I seemedto have the
towrr to mlaelf. There was a choice
of parkingplacesin front of the Gener:alStore,and when I turned offthe
engine, I could hear tle rain falling.
I tucked a writing tablet r:nder my
jacketand madea dashfor the door.
THEDREDGINGS . 1997
'smany of us shell enthusiasts
koo*, from having been there
chatdngwithhim, Tom'sofficeison
the secondfloorof the oldPon Gamble GeneralStoreandis locatedat the
baclcof the building behind his Shell
Museum displays.It was there that
we met to begin this interview. Tom
wasworking at his computerbut immediatelystoppedandwith his usual
gendecourt€symadesureI wascomfortable before we began. And,
having begun with the customary
question, "'Wherewerc you born?",
I was brought up short when Tom
replied, "Oh, about 150 feet fiom
here." Tom wasborn at the old Port
Gamble hospital. The interview immediately veeredinto reminiscence,
becausemy father helped razethe old
hospital which, beforeit was a hospital, had been t:he home of A.G.
Ames who succeededCyrus \falker, the first manager of the mill.
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Abooe:The Manager'sFlouse becamePort Gamble Hospital where Tom was born.
kft:Thomas C. Rice-probably beforemost of us knew him.
-
I7hether the sory is apocryphal or
not, I do not koo*, but my father
old me that when dipper shipssailed
aroundthe Horn m pick up lumbeq
they ofren carried as ballast bricks
made in New England. This brick
was used in the foundation of the
home t"hatlater beca-e the hospital.
As part payment for his labon in dismandingthe old building, myfather
had beengivenloadsof thesebricks.
Yearslater, I helped unearth hundredsof them fiom my parent'sfield
wheretley had becomecoveredwith
turf and wild and rangy blackberry
bushes.I cleanedone thousandfive
hr:ndredof them for the r,nrcfireplaces in our home in the San Juan
Islandsand for the fireplacein our
prcsenthomeon t.heToandosPeninsula. Though I had never seenit, I
felt I knew that old hospital- intimat€ly.
Tom's mother's grandparents
cameto'WashingtonTerritory from
EastMachias,Maine, the town fiorr
which also came Pope and Talbot
founden of the oldest continuall.
operating lumber mill in Nortl
America (sadly closed this year (
7996andevennow in the process
being nznd). Tom's great grand
ther, Thomas Pierce,sailed arou
Cape Horn in 1859on the sail
vessel Toandq. It was a trip of
months.In 1860,Mary Ellen Pie
Thomas'swife, with tieir son, (
ton, followedherhusbandwest;
sailed to the Isthmus of Pan,
crcssedthelsthmusinacovered
on, and then sailed to San Frar
and up the coast ot Seabeck'
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Edith Pierce,on May 8, 1901,married Henry Cotter, a man who had
cometo the regionfrom Birkenhead,
England, and they in turn parented
seven children, one of whom was
Edith, who would become Tom's
mother. Edith had a brother also
named Thomas. He was killed in a
tragic accident in the 1o-lg1 mill,
and Tom was named for this uncle
and hence only indirectly honored
his great grandfather.
Tom'spatemalgrandfathercame
from Missouri and his paternal
Abwe:Tom's first day of school.Below,right:
Tom with a real Indian princess.
Thomas had talren up logging. He
wasconsideredtobe wealthy,having
arrived on Hood Canal with $2,000!
MaryEllen wasthesixth white woman in Seabeck,home to many Indian
people who must have seemed
strange to her since they still wore
blankets and had feathers in their
hair. The Pierceslater moved to the
Duclcabushar€aaclossHood Canal
from Seabeckwherethey bot'ght old
Mr. Brinnon's 200 acre homestead.
F{ere, with the help of o:ren which
he shodhimself, Thomas continued
loggog and sold tle logs to mills on
the Canal, including Pope and Talbot which, in those early days, was
known as tfie Puget Mill Company.
Tho-as Pierce'sloggingcampon the
Duckabushhadtle dubious distinction, when two workmen had a
fdling out, of being the fint murder
on Hood Canal.
Thonas and Mary Ellen had
eight children; one of them, Ma-ie
grand-other was bron in Canada
and raised in Minnesota. The two
met in Bremerton.Both his grandfa
thers, on his mother's and father's
side, worked in the Port Gamble
GeneralSorg and everlrcnein Tom s
family, on both sides,until his generation,worked at one time for Pope
and Tdbot.
The fint shells Tom ever really
sawwerein a curio cabinetin his matemal grandparent'shome, and tlis
cabinetis now in his own home. Pope
and Talbot had their own ships
THE DREDGINGS . 1997
which put in at Port Gamble
and were provisioned through the
GeneralStore.Henry Cotter, Tom's
mother's father, often received
srotic gifts brought fror- far away
placesby the ships' captains.Among
thesewereshellsand evenan ostrich
egg from Africa with designspainted on it.
A memorablefamily acquisition
came to them through one of the
more colorful episodesof Pon C'amble history. A group of Russian
Alaska Indians attacked the setlers
at Port Gamble and the USSMassacbusettsarrived in their defense.
'When conciliation failed, the ship's
hovritzer fired severalcattt'tonballs
at the Indian encampment and tle
Indians surrendered and returned
nonh. Later,a local Indian, friendly
to the town, found a ctnnon
ball embedded in
a cedar log
he was sawing, and he
brought it to
Henry Cotter
whosedaugh-
maternal grandparents.
Tom'spatemal grandmotherwas
named Tillie, and he remembers
helping her weedthe garden,gather
eggs,and pick berries,all the while
listening o 'Stella Dallas" and "One
Man's Family" on the radio. It was
with Tillie that he first started walking on tle beach.Shebelongedto a
GardenClub and wo"ld g in search
of driftwood for flower arrangements,and Tom would gatler shells.
He had a particular penchantfor the
small Littorina scutulataGould,
1849- the checleredperiwinklewhich werefound on rccks high in
the intertidd zane. He would glue
in geometricdesignson the botoms
of empty greeting card boxes and
attach his linorinas. This. Tom enplains, is his one claim
o artistic fame.
He attendedhigh
school at North
Kitsap in Poulsbo.
T o m' s p a re n t s
we re in t h e
s c h o o l' s f irs t
freshman class
a n d T o m' s
classwasthe
lasto go dl
t h e wa y
through
to gradu a t io n .
had
He
someof
the sameteachershis parena had In biology-taught by the
basketball coach-everyone had to
havea project.Tom'sfirst projectwas
"I€aves,oan arranging and nattting
of them. His secondproject,however, was on "Pr€servedMarine Life,"
a project on which he worlred with
his friend Bernie fixmliq and this
was to rekindle his interest in shells.
Afur graduadon, Tom went to
Olympic Collegewhere a major in-
49r
or*iq-
r$as
te r s , Tom n s
a u n t s , su b se quendy gaveit to
a local museum.
Henry Cotter
was later to serve on
the school board and
beca-e a justice of the
\oL'tt"'
peace.He purchaseda
twenty-acre ranch near
lofall, about four miles
south of Port Gamble, at a place
called "Four Conters" (from which
a short road also leads to my own
fxmily's propercy).This is wherethe
family home was still located when
Tom attended grade school in Port
Gamble. He lived next door to his
paer:ral grandparentsand, ashe puts
it, within "spitting distance"from his
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The high schoolstudent-as drum major.
terest was zoology, and his adviser
was Lynnwood Smit}. Lynnwood
lent Tom a cory of Oldroyd's Marine Shelkof Pug* Sound,and Tom
proceededtomake acow brtypi"g
the entire book! Llmnwood'sfattreE
Mr. Stephen J. Smith, is a valued
member of the Pacific Northwest
Shell Club, and he visits Tom at his
Museum severaltimes a year o obtain shells with which he makesup
collections for children as part of a
programin which SeniorVolunteers
help in schools.
Tom and his friend Bemie later
enteredtheir'PreservedMarine Life"
project in a contest in Tacoma and
won a pire.In t957, Tom had a car
and, filled witl enthusiasm,the two
friends headedfor Makah where, as
Tom states simplS they went
"cnzy' o'trerthe number of shells.
They must have been keen, because
it snowedwhile they were there and
they were camped under plastic
wrapped arounda tree.\7hi1e rdlecting on it all, Tom comments wit"h.a
VOLT'ME37 o SPECIALISSUE
*very
touch of nostalgiathat is was
primitive."
He is not altogethersurehow he
beganb getin touch with other shell
collectors,but he doesrememberhis
fint shell exchangewith a man who
worlredat a resort on CaptivaIsland"
Florida. Even oday, he feelsthe ex-
citementof openingthe paclcage
and
seeingthe variery of shell shapesand
colors. He alsorememben joining a
group at this time, but it was not in
the \Tashingtan area..
Tom cameinto contact with \7.
Jackson(]ack)SalleeandJoanShields
in Seatde and together they went
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The Linotype machineon which early issuesof.the NortltaestShellNaas (forerunneroI The
Dredgings)werepublished.It's now storedin the basementof Tom'shome.
collecting to Neah Bay.The ttrreeof
them decidedthey neededto form a
club, and it was with them that the
Pacific Northwest Shell Club originated the fint meetingbeingheld on
September18,1960at Sdlee'sappfiment on Capitol Hill. The second
meetingtook placein Tacomaat the
old aquarium (no longer extant) by
the boat house.The Smileys,long
time Pacific Norchwest Shell Club
members,traveled from fudgefield"
'Washingtonfor this meeting. The
Club acrually formed asthe Nonhwest Shell Club, but this posed a
problem becauseclubs in the east
thought of the oldnonhwest and envisioned the new club in someplace
like Minnesota. Sally Snyder (now
Sally Crittenden) had a lawyer friend
who madeup the papersof incorporation and this problem was solved
when the club incorporated as the
Pacific Northwest Shell CIub.
\Tithin a War after the club was
formed"the needfor a newslefierwas
felt and with Tom asits first editor,
a newsletrcrat that time untitled, was
producedonthe dito machinein the
Pope and Talbot office. Production
wasthen movedto the ditn machine
'\tr7'ingard's
living room.
in Cookie
Tom later mimeographedthe paper
andthen bought a Linotype machine
and printing press.(Afur seeingthe
Linorype in the basementof Tom's
home andhearinghisexplanationof
how it functioned, I felt enormous
relief at seeingthe computer in his
office.)
During the L962'World's Fair,
the Shell Club was askedto place a
display in the JonasBrothers' taxidermy store. Jonas Brothers had
displaycasesthat the club used,and"
afterthe FaiE Tom purchasedtwoof
thesecasesand arrangedshell displays
in the basementof his home where
Scout groups were invited to come
and view the shells.
THE DREDGINGS . 7997
Tom's editorship of the club's
early newslener was a modest but
fertile beginning for the many publications he has produced.The fint
of these was The Catalog of Dealer's
Pricesfor Marine Shellspublished in
1965. \(/hen Abbott and 'Wagner
cameout with the StandardCatalog
of Shells,they included values. Tom
rorcd that some Pacific northwest
shellswhich wereuncommon !o rare
were only priced at about 10 cents
each whereascommon shells from
elsewherewere priced much higher,
and he wished to rectify this. His
catalogisnow in its 14th edition and
is published annually.'Worldwide,it
has become known familiarly as
*Rice'sPrices."
FIis next project was the Marine
Gastropods
frcm tbePugetSound Region which,appearedin 1968.It was
a record from memben of the club
stating where they had found certain
species.Also in 1968, Tom edited
Additions and Revisionsto A. Mya
Keen's Sea Shells of Tiopical West
Amqica. He did not further pursue
updating this list, however, when he
learned that Dr. Keen herself was
working on a gready expandedand
revisedsecondedidon. In close sucDirectory
cessionfollowed,4 Sheller's
of Clubs,Boohs,Periodicak and Dealers first published in t969. The
publication resultedfrom people'sinquiries about shell clubsin their areas and available books as well as
whereto buy shells.The Sheller'sDirecnryisnowin its 20ttr edition and,
lilce the Catalog of Dealer'sPrices,is
published annually.
At this same time, Tom was
continuing his collecting trips to
Mexico - trips which he started
making n L964- and there he was
meeting collectorsfrom other parts
of the couutry. Repeatedly,he heard
them orpresstle needfor a magarine
g
>.
a
A displayof abalones,one of manydisplaysin Tom'sOf Seaand ShoreMuseum.
devoed to shells.There had beenan
attempt with a publication entided
"Shells and Their Neighbors" by a
'womanin California an{ of course,
matry clubs had their newsletters.
Duringhis 1968triptoMexicq Tom
waswith EveretandMabelStiles,and
they wrote up an idea of how to start
'\il?'henTom
returned
a magazine.
home, he contactedpeople to submit articles, and he also contacted
prospectiveadvertisers.
Spring of L970sawthe first issue
of Of Seaand Shoremagazi"e. This
first issue was mailed free to anyone
interestedin shells for whom Tom
had an address.He soon discovered
that costs far exceededavailable
funds, so he borrowedJerry'Ward's
electric mimeog:zph which, unforftnately, proved not to be practical
fiom an electrical point of view, becauseit fed too fast and causedthe
transfet of ink onto finished pages.
Un&unted, To- hand crankedthe
mimeographwith his left hand while
handfeedingeactrpagewith his right,
and he did this for 2,000copieswith
52 pagesin eachcopy! If that wasn't
enough,he hadto placea blank sheet
betweeneach pageas it came fiom
the machine to ensurethat no ink
transferredonto the cleanpagesand
therefore, later, had to separatethe
printed sheetsfiom ttre blanls-also
by hand. This first effort, howwer,
did bring 500 subscriptions.Tom
recalls that he received the munifi
cent sum of $3.50 d,year for each
subscription. The magazinepealred
in the early 80's with 1,500subscribers.
Also in 1970, Tom ventured
briefly into the world of shell dealers. On August 1, L970,he issueda
53 page catalog of Specimm Sbells.
The shells were fiom the west coast
of the United Statesand from Mexi
co, and the catalog cost 50 cents.
'I"d"y, his shell selling effort is relegated to specimens offered at the
Museum.
Ellis Robinson of Edmonds,
\fxshingron had developeda t"hreecolor separationprocessfor printing,
andhe andhis wife, Gayle,haddone
a book on Pacifcnonhwest wildflowen andGayle'slnrents hadproduced
one on rocks and minerals of the
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Abwe: Of Seaand ShoreMuseumis locatedin historicPort Gamble'sold GeneralStore.Belou:
The museumdisplays:the GeneralStore'sold shelveswereusedand fitted with glassdoorsto
Drotectthe shells.
Pacific nofthwest. G"yl. was from
Poulsbo,a town situatedonly a few
miles from Pon Gamble, and knew
Tom. Sheand her husbandEllis approachedhim witl the requestthat
he do a book on seashellsfor tleir
series.Also in this serieswasa book
on starfishby Virginia Pill and Marjorie Fulong - the Furlongs had an
aquarium and a gift shop at Hoodsport where they also displayed
shells;tleir shells,and other marine
specimens,arenow pan of Bert and
Dorothy Harrison's Shellflair Shell
and Marine Museum in 'Westport.
Tom's book in this serieswas published in 197LasMarine Shelkof tbe
PacificNorthwest.In 1922,Robinson
alsopublishedTom's book on lVbat
kA Shell?Thissameyear,Ellis Robinson sold his book line to another
>\
THE DREDGINGS . 1997
company who changedthe title of
Tom;s book to Marine Shelk of the
Pacifi.cCoastta include California
and increasethe book's marketing
base.Unfornrnately out of print, it
is still of tremendoushelp in identifying shells in tle field, and second
hand copiesare quickly purchased.
Ag"io, from the relativelY humble beginnings of two shell display
caseswhich scout grouPs came to
view, Tom began to think about a
Shell Museum. FIe did not originallv tlink of Port Gamble but began
to lookfor alocalein Port Townsend.
Popeand Talbot wasplanning to Plt
in the uPPerfloon of the
"General
-ot.o- Store. 'S7henthey decided
insteadto placeit in the basementof
the building, Tom beganconsidering
ttreseupperfloon - actudlY' atthat
time, just the secondfloor. PoPeand
Tdbot thought he would be Placing
the mill manonly a few cases.'S(/hen
son and his wife, Larry and
"g.i" Peck,becameinterestedin helpJudy
ing, they started extending the
efibits. The GeneralSorehadoPen
shelveson which merchandise had
been stored and displa)'e4 originally, these shelveswere usedto display
the shells, and heavy Plastic was
placed over them for Protection.
j"dy Peckpainted wo murals for the
one of a Puget Sound
M*.o*,
beach and another of.a coral reef.
Vith the help fo Jerry and Agnes
\fard, Tom was later able to enclose
the displays in glass wittr interior
lighting. The \(rards and Herb and
\7ilma Young wit[ their son andhis
wife helped lay carpet in the museum section. The Shell Museum
openednear Memorial DaY of 1973.
Tom has lrept a guest book over
the pars and continues to be amarnd
to findthat peoplevisit fiom all parts
of t.heworld. He mentione4 bY vraY
of example,visiors fiom Saudi Ara-
FrenchPolynesia
bia, tle Galapagos,
Actor
and Chile.
John \ilaYne and
Chuck Connors of "The Rifleman"
T.V. serieshave come to view the
shells.Raymond Burr of the 'Perry
Mason" T.V. serieswas an avid collector and he and Tom visited bY
phone; it was he who advised'fom
to make the Museum a non-Profit
corporation, advicewhich Tom immediately put into effect.
By ttre mid 8O's,the Museumdis-
bineshis rwo interestsand limits his
earlier collection to stamPswith
shellspictured on them. This interesrled b his publication of A Chqhlist
of Mollusks on PostageSarnps, {irst
published n Of Seaand Shoremagaandnow in its 5tl edition which
"i"e
cameout in Septemberof this year,
l996.Tomcunently writes a column
for the Italian shell journal la' Con'
cbigliaon tlis samesubjectof shells
on stamPs.
r)
9)
boxes.
The Muszum'sstoreroom:shellsnot curently on displayarekept in banker's
plap hadextendedo the thirdfloor.
Also on the t.hirrdflooris a room directly over Tom's office which
contains copies of his publications
and is chockablockfrom floor o ceiling, wall to wall with books and
magazines.One has visions of its
massi'veweigbt all caving in on Tom
and leavinghim pressedflat asa charac in a BugsBunnY caroon. Tom
allays this fear by Pointing to the
beamacross&s geiling of his office,
a beam that would Prcve the metde
of any worthwhile lumber mill.
BeforeTom wasa shell collecor,
he collected stamPsand now com-
Many shellerswho subscribedto
Of Sea and Shore magazin'e have
wondered about the hiatus in
its continuity. It all has to do with
bridges.Tom wasa bridge tender on
the Hood Canal Bridge from 1961
when it openedto 1964when he beca-e the oll collectoron t.hebtidg..
In tg6g, he returned to bridge tending andheld ttris position until Febrv^ry of.L979when the bridge blew
down in winds which neared 100
miles an hour. Afurthe bridge sank,
there were plans within the Year to
replaceit with a Bailey btidg., at€mporrry floating Pontoon bridge,
VOLUME 3Z O SPECIAL ISSUE
which would later be replacedby a
permanentbtidg.. Becausethis proposed*"itiog period was not long,
Tom decided to decline a Position
with the ferry system. Before the
t€mporary btidg" was built, however, a lawsuit was brought over the
bidding procedure,and this resulted
in Tom being unemployedfor four
yearsinsteadof one, four yean which
he bore at his own expense.Vhen
the rebuilt bridge opened in November o{ t982,the position of Permanent bridge tender had been replacedby a part time position which
Tom resumed.Vithout full time income to help supporr the magazine
and with increasedprinting costs'
Tom was forced to suspendpublicaof 1984,Tom
tionin 1983.InJanual.y
was again assignedto be mll collector; ttris position lastedbut a short
time when another lawsuit resulted
in the removalof tolls, and Tom was
transferred as bridge tender to the
Blair Bridgein Tacoma.In the fall of
1990, Tom was able to once again
resumepublication of the magazine,
and the current issue,as we write, is
Volume 19,number3. The magazlns
has dways been a quarterly and has
usually aver:agedabout 60 Pagesin
leng&.
TIte international Sheller'sDirec'
tory wasfint published by Joho Q.
Burch and later by M. E. Young,but
it ceasedpublication with her death
in the early 9O's.The directory listed shellersworldwide and alsolisted
their areasof interest. After a lapse
of time, Tom felt there was a need
for a similar publication and hence
was born the Directoryof Conchologists/Mahcoloy"* in L993.The 3rrd
edition will be c.llt'rnL997.
Tom's experiencesas tour director for shelling trips is a storY in
itself. In' L972,heled his first tour to
Costa Rica with members mostlY
from Florida and the eastcoast.He
becameinvolvedwhenaman in FIorida gavethe trip to him if he would
be the tour leader.This samePerson
whq Tom decidedwithgoodreason,
shall remainnameless,organizedthe
nerft trip to New Zealand and Australia. FIe sent only enough money
and said
for the first week's a(Penses
he would then meet the grouPwhich he did not do. He did send
enough money for another week of
hotels in New Zea,land.The grouP
wassupposedto visit the Great Barrier Reefin Australia,but, when they
checkedwith airline personnelin
New Zealand, they discoveredthat
by the time they reachedthe reef
they could spendonly a half daYbefore they had to rurn around and
retum home. The tour was somewhat rescuedwhenthe grouPtumed
in their tickets for refunds which
covereda four day stay in Tahiti.
After this experience,Tom decided
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The boolstore sectionof the Mu sew. Abooe,
ight:Tomand"B.C."
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he could do a better iob of organizing and resolvedm do his own tours.
Subsequenttours have taken
Tom to Australia, Senegal,Costa
Rica (again), Palau, Mauritius, Kenya, Egypt, the Comoro Islands,
Madagascar,Bonaire, Fiii, Tahiti
(again),Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, Majuro, Guam, Bora Bora,
Huahine, Mexicq Guatemala,llonduras,El Salvador,Nicaragua,Alaska
and western Canada.The thrill of
exoticplacesis sometimesnot without its down side. Tom remembers
the 16 mile trek back to town when
the car he was in brolcedown while
he was in Alaska, and the flight on
'Air Madagascar'acrossthe Mozambique Channel to Kenya when the
plane flew from cool to warm air and
suddenly shot up severd hun&ed
feet. On the sametrip, the group was
alsoto fly 'Air Ethiopia,' and it was
just afrcr the last Arab-Israeli war. It
wasfar from galming to notice,asthe
plane lifud on take off, that along
the sides of the runways were
wrecled hulks of Arab planes shot
down by Israelis. Tom's tour grcuP
wascompletelysurrcundedbyArab
passengers.The plane suddenlY
veered off course and over the intercom camethe theme from "Exodus." Tom'si--ediate thought was,
"This is it- we'rebeinghijackedby
Israelis!" As things turned out, how-
l0
that come to the fore during this
day'smemoriesareV'alterEyerdam,
'Mr. Nontrwest Naturalist,' publisher of many articles who had a
mountain aswell asshellsnr-ed for
him; Trevor Kincaid, Universiry of
'Washingtonprofessorwho started
the Fri&y Harbor labs; Franl<Bernard" deep water bivalve specialist
from the Biologicd Station at NanThe Pacific Northwest Shell
aimo; Lola Griffith, who wrote
Club has traveled vicariouslY on
about intenidd univalves of British
many of thesetours. Tom hosts the
Columbia; Ian McT. Cowan,ProfesMay meeting in Port Gamble and
sor at the UniversitY of British
speaksabout his travelswhile illusColumbia who describedthechion
trating t-hemwith er<cellentslides.He
Mopalia spectabilis;Allyn G. Smi&
alsosenresplatter-sizndcookies.Unof the California Academyof Sciencderstandably,it is usually one of the
es; G Dallas Hanna, who srudied
best attended meetings of the year.
introduced mollusks of the west
organizato
several
Tom belongs
coast;A. Myra Keen, author of Sea
tions dedicatedtothe studyof shells. Shelk of Tropical \YestAmerica; RuHe is a ctrartermember and first pres- dolph Stohler,initiator and editor of
i&nt of the Pacific Nonhwest Shell The Veligerfor many years; Tucler
Club - he also serveda secondtime
Abboa, probably the most famous
aspresident;he is a charter member U.S.shell specialistand author; \7iland waspresidentof the Marine Sci- liam Clench, Curator of tle Museum
enceSocietytlat meetsin Poulsbo; of Comparative Tnotogy at Harr-and;
he is a charrcr member of the'West- Bill Old of the American Museum
ern Societyof Malacologists;he is a of Natural History in New York
member since 1970of tle Concho- ciry; and Gary Rosenburg,Presentlogical Society of Great Britain and ly at the Academy of Sciencesin
Ireland and is also a member of the Philadelphia and also an authorMalacologicd Society of Australasia Tom rememberswith pleasurethat
({ormerly Australia).
when Gary was in college he was a
of Tom'stours.
On the tlird floor of the Muse- member of one
Last year (1995), in addition to
um, aswell asthe hun&eds of shells
ttre
soris,
opposire
the magazineandthe work he brings
on display,tlere
agercom for bools and Periodicals, out annually, Tom Published a
whimsical litde recipe book entitled
a largeroom filled with banler's borBeachBan4uet,aworkthat wascones which are, in turn, filled with
sPecies
ceived as early as L978.He also
shells.Tom hassome20, 000
and over a million shells. He has no invircd to the Muszum, where theY
favorite families but hasa particular meet{or informd discussion,a gloup
of people interested in shells and
fondnessfor micro mollusks. He
marine life. The grouPmeetsat 1:00
claims that for him, ttre best pan of
his interestin shellshasbeenthe peo- pm on the first SaturdaYof the
ple he has been privileged to know. month, and anYonewho is interestThe number is legion, but the names ed is welcome to attend.
ever,the plane changedcourseonlY
to avoid a slorm. 1n"72, while night
collecting in CostaRica, Tom helped
a woman turn a rock where she
for:nd a Conusebraeus,a normallY
Indo-Pacific shell which is rarely
found in the easternPacific.Tom did
not collect one until 7 trips and20
yean later.
THE DREDGINGS . 1997
Despite the impressive,almost
overwhelming, impact of Tom's
it is a recorrd
recordof achievements,
He
is workclosed.
is
far
from
that
ing on a revisedand updatedversion
of his book which first appearedas
Marine Shellsofthe Pacifi.cNorthwest.
He is also working on a Cbechlistof
theSbelledMarine Molluscaof theOre'
gonia.nFaunalPwrtince whichwould
cwer CapeMendocino,Ca1i{orniato
Queen Charlote Strait, British Columbia. In his plans is a Sheller's
Almanac, a generalreferenceon shell
collecting- where b go, what to
ta}e, how to start a club, put on a
show, do a newsletter,etc.- and a
book with the intriguing title of
Doun East, Out W'est:Story of Port
Gamble,W'asbington.
My note taking to an end, and
my farewells alsq I returned to the
car. The rain had lessened,but the
wind had strengthened and already
divestedthe trees of some of their
auturnnal glory. I felt tired but extremely gratified at Tom's generous
efforts to be helpful and informative.
As I drove away,I ttrought I should
have wished him long life. He's going to need it to finish all that
work. *
In addition to the information
given me by Tom Rice, some facts
were obtained frcm the section on
the family's history n Ki'tsapCounry History: A Story of KitsaP CoantY
and hs Pioneers,Book II, 'North
Kitsap County," ed. Rangvald Kvelstad(Seanle,L977),p. L43.
I wish dso to thank Tom's Parents, Frank and Edith Rice for
welco-ing me to t[eir home to take
photographs - especiallY of the
monolithic Linorype.