Partner, Jones, Bassi and Associates, Surveyors, Mercer Island, WA, 1948-1987.

Education

Bassi attended the John B. Allen Elementary School at 6532 Phinney Avenue North in Seattle. (See Nile Thompson and Carolyn J. Marr, Historylink.org, "Seattle Public Schools, 1862-2000: John B. Allen School," accessed 04/06/2015.) Diploma, Ballard High School, Ballard, Seattle, WA, 1938. B.S., Forestry, University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Seattle, WA, 1942.

Relocation

Jacob Bassi was born in Seattle, WA, the eldest of three children, and grew up in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, graduating from nearby Ballard High School in 1938. As a child, he traveled mostly within Washington State, taking periodic trips to visit relatives living in Centerville, WA, and on Vashon Island, WA. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle (UW), School of Forestry, and there met his future surveying business partner, Robert W. Jones (1920-2007).

Drafted during World War II, he joined the Coast Guard, as he had had significant nautical experience working on his father's fishing boat, the Resolute. During the war, he travelled to New London, CT, where he had an accelerated course of study at the Coast Guard Academy, from which he graduated in 1943. He had assignments on ships in Port Angeles, WA, Long Beach, CA, and Alameda, CA. His last assignment was aboard the USS Ariadne, a 165-foot, Thetis-class cutter, that operated as an escort ship for submarines and merchant vessels. (See US Coast Guard, "Ariadne 1934," accessed 04/06/2015.) From 1945 until 1966, Bassi worked on fishing vessels, at first on the halibut boat owned by his father and brother. Following Wilma's death, Bassi needed to find work closer to home, and he bought into the surveying business owned by Bob Jones on Mercer Island. He worked as a surveyor for several years, but also fished on three other vessels that he owned or part-owned, the Nordby, Chelsea, and Polaris. He raised his family in a house in Richmond Beach, but, following his second wife's diagnosis of cancer in the mid-1980s, moved to a residence in Seattle's Olympic Manor neighborhood. After this third marriage in 1988, he and his new wife moved to property on Whidbey Island's Penn Cove, where remained for most of the rest of his life. Bassi retired from fishing in 1985, and from surveying in 1992. He died in the 98275 zip code of Mukilteo, WA.

Parents/Immediate Family

His parents were Jacob (1879-1962) and Judith Steen Bassi. They married in Seattle on 07/16/1919. (See "King County Marriage Records, 1855-1990 - Jacob A Bassi - Judith Steen," accessed 04/06/2015.) His father worked as a fisherman. He had a sister, Kathryn (1927-1946), who died prematurely from tuberculosis, and a younger brother, Byron (1925-2010), with whom he fished for some years after World War II.

Spouses

Bassi married tthree times. He met his first wife, Wilma Anderson (d. 1966), while they both were in high school, and married on 06/14/1944 in Seattle's Emanuel Lutheran Church. (See "King County Marriage Records, 1855-1990 - Jacob S Bassi - Wilma Anderson," accessed 04/06/2015.) He was on a week-long leave from the Coast Guard when they wed. His second wife was Alfhild Thomassen (d. 1987), whom he married on 09/25/1968 in Snohomish County, WA. ("Snohomish County Auditor, Marriage Records, 1867-2008 - Jacob S Bassi - Alfhild Thomassen," accessed 04/06/2015.) An active and energetic man, Bassi married his third wife, Maude Ingvarda Mathisen, in 1988. (See "Snohomish County Auditor, Marriage Records, 1867-2008 - Bassi Jacob Steen - Mathisen Maude Ingvarda," accessed 04/06/2015.) She survived him at his death in 2001.

Children

Jacob Bassi and Wilma Anderson had five children. He had one other child with Alfhild.

Biographical Notes

Jacob Bassi had the nickname, "Boyce." SSN: 535-05-3726;