2024 Lifetime Achievement Awards
The Lifetime Achievement Awards will kick off this year’s Wooden Boat Festival on Thursday, September 5, at 5:30 PM!This annual event recognizes exceptional contributions to the wooden boat community. For over 15 years, we have celebrated people who have made wooden boating what it is! This year’s honorees are:
Jim Tolpin
Internationally renowned woodworker, finish carpenter, author, and educator, Jim Tolpin has been crafting a life from wood “by hand and by eye” since the 1970s. His masterfully crafted cabinetry and furniture (of all sizes and shapes) have adorned homes on both coasts and can be found in the woods (cottages), on water (boats), and on wheels (gypsy wagons). His lifetime inventory of hand-crafted works ranges, as he describes, “from boxes to boats, pitchforks to pegs, and cottages to caravans.”
In the late 1980s, spurred by echoes of advice from his mentor Bud McIntosh, Jim wrote and published his first book, Working at Woodworking. Now, 18 books later, with a million books sold and an impressive online audience of international followers on Instagram and YouTube, Jim is one of America’s most prolific, respected, and inspiring author educators to generations of woodworkers—from beginners to masters of the craft. His passion for learning and honing the skills of the craft are exponentially matched by a passion for teaching.
In 2007, with fellow woodworkers John Marckworth and Tim Lawson, Jim co-founded the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. Since then, thousands of students have taken weekend to 12-week workshops. The school continues to deliver high-quality instruction by professional educators who are able to recognize individual learning styles, employ excellent communication skills, and are always generous with their patience and good humor.
Jim describes, “The way has come full circle back to where I started: To the act of simply touching the wood. For I have come to realize that while the stuff I make is for the world, the making of it is for me.”
On his website, ByHandandEye, there’s a prominent quote by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) that reads, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire.” Not only has Jim Tolpin’s fire preserved, he is preserving it for others.
Margie Abraham
For 90 years, Margie Abraham has been an instigator, enthusiast, participant, and eagle-eyed letter-writing advocate for much of what’s become known as maritime culture in Port Townsend. She moved here when she was 3 years old. Her influence on this community started not long after when she met her lifelong best friend and co-conspirator Donna Verrier (later Daubenberger) in first grade and her future husband Glenn Abraham who was in second grade.
After a childhood boating with her family on the waterfront, in 1962, the Abrahams, the Daubenbergers, and the Scheyers ordered and took delivery of three Thunderbird sailboats—a new 26’ class of plywood racing sloops in the Pacific Northwest. Back then, in the early 1960s, they were the only three sailboats on the waterfront! Thunderbirds became the foundation of the nascent sailing and racing cultures that Port Townsend is known for today. Years later, when the Abraham’s boat, Caveat, was donated by different owners to the “new” Northwest Maritime Center around 2008, Margie donated the original, hand-written, splash-stained Ship’s Log to the H.W. McCurdy Library to be preserved as a record of this era of community history. Her daughter, Annie, is now restoring Caveat in Boat Haven marina.
Raising two daughters in a family passionate about sailing, Margie and Glenn cruised extensively and raced competitively. Their enthusiasm overlapped to local school friends of their daughter who were often invited to crew. This inspired the start of another deep Port Townsend institution—sail training classes—taught by Glenn and Jim Daubenberger and supported by Margie for decades through subsequent generations.
Margie’s sense of adventure and pursuit of good fun helped to fill the Port Townsend Yacht Club’s events calendar, which was legendary. She has a rare depth of graciousness and extends her warmth around all in equal measure, building community. Decades ago, she and Donna took upon themselves the Trees for Port Townsend project. Without sponsorship, they raised enough funds to buy 500 trees which they planted throughout Port Townsend and Fort Worden. Those trees stand sentinel now to a precious life well lived.
Dave Thompson
Calker Dave’s first introduction to boats was racing Blanchard’s with his father in Coeur d’Alene at the tender age of three. The two raced through most of Dave’s childhood. Coming of age, Dave joined the Navy, then did various jobs like accounting, real estate, and working in a mental institution—all to put himself through university. His first foray into shipwrighting happened in Seattle when Dave offered to help a friend repair a leaky boat. Arriving in Port Townsend in 1974, Dave “drifted in with the tide” on a sailboat he was living on. At first, Dave worked for the Port of Port Townsend helping haul boats and pump gas. Next, he became a shipwright, working for Mark Burn at Port Townsend Boatworks. Dave worked on repairing many fish boats and a new build fish boat, F/V China Cove.
In 1982, a contingent of boatworkers from PT Boatworks split off and formed the Shipwright’s Coop. Dave was amongst the first members. He stayed as a member for five years, eventually striking out on his own. Dave did not want to compete with his fellow Coop members, so Dave chose to become an itinerant shipwright casting further afield for work. Those projects include the Corwyth Cramer in Miami, FL; Lady Wahington in Aberdeen, WA; and working for Bay Ship and Yacht in Seattle, WA. Eventually, Dave drifted back to Port Townsend, working as an independent in every corner of the yard. When asked what his favorite projects were, Dave said unequivocally seiner rebuilds and there were many in Port Townsend. He continues to this day, fifty years after arriving in Port Townsend, helping complete all sorts of wooden boat projects, calking, and helping many new shipwrights find their footing in the yard.