Walter S. Rosenberry

In our lovely Lake City, we have one of the most beautiful and scenic drives with which any town could be graced: Rosenberry Drive.

The exquisite tree-lined roadway with magnificent vistas of Lake Coeur d'Alene is surrounded by beaches that have welcomed residents and tourists for decades.

Rosenberry Drive has been front and center in the local and regional media for the past several months. A number of local folks have asked me, "Who was your grandfather, and what did he do?" For you see, my grandfather was the man for whom the road was named.

As the road re-opens to the public, it my honor to tell you who he was.

Like so many residents of the Lake City, my grandfather, Walter S. Rosenberry, was not born here.

Rather, he was a product of the Midwest. He came into the world on Aug. 3, 1882. He was the son of Samuel Rosenberry and Mary Amelia Hitchcock. His father was Pennsylvania Dutch, and his mother English. My great-grandfather made his living as a farmer and carpenter. Before he began his career, he was a soldier in the Civil War.

My grandfather attended Michigan public schools. He had aspirations to become a doctor like his uncle. Not too many years ago, my mother found his acceptance letter to medical school in a stack of papers in our home in Spokane.

However, grandfather's older brother, Marvin, was already in law school, so the family couldn't afford to have more than one in college. Marvin later became a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and chief justice of that court until his retirement in 1950.

Not one to be discouraged, my grandfather simply decided to change career direction. After several years of teaching school in Wisconsin and being a principal, he chose to enter the then-booming timber industry. He began working as a common laborer making $1.40 a day, and then became a buyer for Ballard Lumber of Minneapolis, Minn. He bought lumber in the Inland Northwest and met his future wife, Sara Etta McInnis, whose family hailed from Merrill, Wis. They married in Spokane in 1905, and promptly moved to Thief River Falls in Minnesota, where grandfather began his career in management for The Winton Company. Thus began a professional and personal tie to a lumber family that lasted until my grandfather's passing in 1941.

My grandparents welcomed their first two children: Walter Jr., born in Thief River, and then John, born in Minneapolis. In 1911, my grandparents moved to Rose Lake, Idaho, where the Winton family had purchased a mill that was already established in that area. In 1918, the Wintons bought a mill in Gibbs, Idaho, so Coeur d'Alene was the logical place to oversee the various Winton properties. My grandparents were transferred to the Lake City, and purchased a home at 820 Sherman Ave. There they raised their six children: Walter, John, Ralph, Howard, Bob, and their only daughter - my mother, Mary Jean.

That lovely home remains today, and is now a beautifully restored bed and breakfast called "The Blackwell House."

My grandfather co-owned and helped run Winton Lumber Company in Coeur d' Alene until his death.

The 1930s were a particularly challenging decade as the Great Depression impacted our country, and North Idaho was not exempt from its effects. Many timber businesses folded, and many of those that survived had to deal with the unionization of their companies.

My grandfather had a heart attack during this time. My uncle John, newly graduated from Stanford University in 1931, returned home to help his dad, my grandfather, in the lumber business.

There were other issues such as fires and tragic accidents that affected the industry. I know my grandfather was always deeply affected when those tragedies happened. My grandfather really loved his workers - not just as employees, but as people. I think in many ways, they were an extension of his family.

During difficult times, many timber companies downsized and laid off men over age 50. My grandfather refused to do that. When medical coverage became an accepted benefit, one physician wanted to be the company doctor. My grandfather sided with his workers who wanted the freedom to select their own physicians.

Grandfather was involved in the Western Pine Association and developed a process of certification of graders which created a level of skill and fairness that had not been present until that point.

Something that was vitally important to Walter S. Rosenberry was education. He had six children and he made sure each of them had a wonderful education in the public and private schools. He sent them to the University of Idaho, Stanford, Dartmouth, Amherst, and in my mother's case, Mills in Oakland, Calif.

But, he didn't stop there. Knowing how a quality education can enrich, and change a life, he paid for many scholarships for young people when he was alive. I don't think some even knew he was the one paying their tuition.

He realized as Coeur d'Alene was growing, how important a junior college was for this area. He was the one who pushed the Winton Board to donate the land they owned in the Fort Grounds to the city, which was developed into North Idaho College as we know it today. It was his ability to see this need fulfilled for the young people of Coeur d'Alene that drove his vision.

He was active in his support of the Boy Scouts and Camp Easton. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Rotary, Masons and Shriners.

I so wish my grandparents were still alive. I would love being able to run up those wonderful wooden steps at 820 Sherman and plop down on that comfortable green sofa in the living room, and tell them all about the wonderful young people in the Lake City today. In my semi-retirement, I've had the great good fortune to work with youngsters in a local school, and I am so impressed with their commitment not only to school, but their community. Nothing would have made my grandfather happier than to know that young people are giving back to this beautiful "slice of heaven" that is Coeur d'Alene.

The place I most associate with him, and what he stood for, is Rosenberry Drive.

Rosenberry Drive was dedicated to my grandfather after he died in 1941. It's the perfect convergence of all that mattered to him: The majestic beauty of the lake, the towering pines, nestled by the college that he envisioned being there so long ago, bordered by sandy beaches for all citizens to enjoy. It's located on what is perhaps the most stunning stretch of land in this region, a magnificent tribute to a man who not only cared about his children and their futures, but about the future of children who will live here for generations to come.

It's a marvelous legacy indeed.