When Frank Prothero began building wooden boats, Woodrow Wilson was in the White House, the electric range was touted as the latest kitchen miracle and pot roast sold for a nickel a pound.
Today Prothero is 88. And though his joints are stiffened by arthritis, he still rises by 4 a.m. six days a week, drives from his Lake City home to a Lake Union dock, and toils away on his latest wooden boat.
"I don't know any different," he said. "My father was a boat builder, my grandfather was a boat builder and my great-grandfather opened his (boat) shop here in 1870."
In the course of his career, Prothero has built or repaired literally hundreds of boats: tiny rowboats, graceful yachts, brawny tugboats and full-size fishing boats built to withstand Alaska's stormy seas.
But it's Prothero's current project that continues to amaze people: the 65-foot schooner Glory of the Seas, taking shape alongside a dock off Fairview Avenue East.
Read about Frank’s story in this 1993 Seattle Times article.
Our friends at Salt Water People Historical Society have written more here.