A4 • Friday, February 5, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Furnish, Gearhart clam digger, raconteur
and social media infl uence dies at age 70
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
J
ames “Jim” F. Furnish, 70, who
lived the last years of his life as the
founder of the Gearhart Facebook
pages “A Million Friends of Gearhart” and
the “Pacifi c Way Group,” died Saturday
morning.
“This morning we have lost a father,
brother, grandfather, and above all a
friend,” his son, James, wrote in announc-
ing his death.
Furnish was born Sept. 8, 1950, in Port-
land and moved to Gearhart at age 9.
His mother, Elna Furnish, was a long-
time columnist for the Seaside Signal, writ-
ing “Let’s Talk Food” for decades. His
father, William Wallace Furnish, a former
World War II pilot, was a rancher and insur-
ance broker. Jim Furnish was a 1968 gradu-
ate of Seaside High School.
He lived in Gearhart for
most of his life and worked
as a commercial fi sher-
man, an able hand on fi sh-
ing boats and a professional
clam digger.
He worked as drug and
alcohol counselor in Seaside
Jim Furnish
for many years.
A self-described “fi sh-
monger,” he was a familiar face at Bell
Buoy of Seaside, Country Traveler Online
wrote in a 2015 profi le. “Behind the
counter, the retired fi sherman’s energy and
enthusiasm for the job belies his age. One
minute he is outside tidying up the parking
lot, the next minute he’s bringing someone
a taste of something new at the little eating
bar by the window and then he’s popped
back behind the counter helping and joking
with a customer he hasn’t seen for a while.”
Furnish was a man of many talents and
a wealth of local and other knowledge, Jay
Pitman of Clatsop County Sons of Beaches
said . “He was a member whom I’ll never
forget, a great outdoorsman with respect
to our commercial and sportsman culture
of the fi shing industry. He will be greatly
missed on our beach therapy sessions.”
Furnish was an encyclopedia of informa-
tion about the North Coast, with a knowl-
edge of the characters of days gone by.
As an inveterate beachcomber, he was
often featured in T he Astorian for his tsu-
nami debris fi nds, like the large upside
down boat dock with writing on the tires in
Japanese from Japan’s March 2011 tsunami
or the very large U.S. Coast Guard n aviga-
tion b uoy he found on a Gearhart beach. He
could discuss at length Rimas Meleshyus,
the wayward sailor who only knew how to
drift, the long history of Terrible Tilly or
“Batman” actor Adam West’s summers in
Gearhart.
Furnish dedicated his online social
media pages to fond memories of Gearhart
days gone by as well as pointed dialogues
on city policy and personalities.
The private group Million Friends of
Gearhart, created in 2011, now has 1,500
members.
“Can’t help to think about the founder
of this site and how he has been the voice
of truth in Gearhart,” wrote Kathleen Piner
Zimmerman on the Million Friends of
Gearhart page. “Love him or hate him he is
a voice of reason, common sense and love
for ‘keeping Gearhart, Gearhart.’”
Like others in numerous tributes online,
Zimmerman described Furnish as “ the best
Gearhart historian I know and a true icon in
the community and not afraid to stand up
for what he thinks is the right thing.”
The Pacifi c Way Group, started by Fur-
Kathleen Piner Zimmerman
Kathleen Piner Zimmerman was walking on
the beach when she stumbled across Jim
Furnish. He dropped off all of his clams at her
house after he reached his limit.
Courtesy James Furnish
Jim Furnish, Emelia and James Furnish.
Darien Chrysafi s
Jim Furnish in 1992.
Courtesy James Furnish
Jim Furnish on the Columbia River.
Courtesy James Furnish
James Furnish, Jim Furnish and Hylah Furnish.
nish in 2019, took over conversations con-
sidered too political for the Million Friends
of Gearhart page. It now has 241 mem-
bers. The page has become a heated reposi-
tory for discussions of all topics relating to
Gearhart, often no holds barred.
Jack Zimmerman, a co-administrator,
said Furnish was very private during his last
few years and determined to keep his health
challenges from interfering with his Face-
book efforts.
He said Furnish’s social media presence
was driven by his ability to critique city
government, which kept him from running
for offi ce.
He was a good friend to all, lifelong
Gearhart resident Helen Dawson-Leach
said. “He loved Gearhart as all of us
old-timers do. He stood up to the powers
that be for the town he loved.”
Furnish fought cancer for the p ast
decade, according to a fundraising site orga-
nized by his friend Stewart Schultz, and
went through surgeries and several bouts
of chemotherapy and radiation, including a
botched surgery that required a lengthy and
painful recovery.
A year and a half ago, Furnish was diag-
nosed as cancer-free and in good health,
Schultz wrote. His symptoms returned in
November.
After two weeks in a Portland hospital,
he was diagnosed with new metastatic can-
cers in his liver and pelvic bone.
“He would give whatever he had to help
people even though he didn’t have much,”
his son said.
“I remember setting up his Yahoo email
account in 1998, not realizing I helped cre-
ate the greatest internet scourge the world
would ever know.
“He loved, laughed and lived a life too
complex for one person to detail. I don’t
know what the afterlife holds, but I know
the greatest Clatsop County clam digger is
now a part of the whole.”
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Act now to ‘Save Our Stages’
The Save Our Stages Act was passed
to provide fi nancial assistance to theaters.
Unfortunately, it inadvertently excludes
community theaters whose actors are volun-
teers, as opposed to paid, performers.
This would mean that Coaster Theatre,
Tillamook Association for the Performing
Arts, Peninsula Association for the Perform-
ing Arts and Astor Street Opry Company
would not be eligible to apply for relief. I
have sent the following message to Senate
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, bill spon-
sors Senators Amy Klobuchar and Chuck
Coryn as well as Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
and Senators Merkley and Wyden.
I would welcome anyone to join in advo-
cating for assistance for these cultural venues
and offer it for your use and personalization:
Thank you for your efforts in bringing
legislation to help all Americans in these dif-
fi cult times.
As a member and treasurer of the board
of directors of the Coaster Theatre Playhouse
located in Cannon Beach, I am writing with
a concern about the Save Our Stages portion
of the CARES Act 2. While it’s important
that cultural venues for music and theater are
preserved, the way Save Our Stages is writ-
ten excludes nonprofi t community theaters
which exist on limited budgets built through
grants and ticket sales.
The artists are volunteers who are con-
tributing to their community and having the
opportunity to practice their passion. Thus,
the eligibility statement in Save Our Stages
which requires that artists be paid rules out
the ability of any nonprofi t community the-
ater to apply for relief. The Coaster Theatre
is one of hundreds of valuable community
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Darren Gooch
Joshua Heineman
Rain Jordan
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
PUBLIC MEETINGS
cultural venues whose budgets have been
decimated at this time; a large portion of our
sustenance, ticket sales, is obliterated due to
health restrictions.
Grant revenue has become even more
important to preserve our future ability to
provide artistic and cultural outlet to our
performers and audiences, many of whom
are invaluable visitors contributing to the
important tourist economy of our area.
As this act will be going into effect very
soon, we implore you to do everything in
your power to make sure that the eligibil-
ity requirement that performers are paid
(employees) be removed from Save Our
Stages in order to protect community the-
aters — and Coaster Theatre Playhouse.
Thank you.
Tita Montero
Seaside
Contact local agencies for latest meeting infor-
mation and attendance guidelines.
MONDAY, FEB. 8
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., cityofseaside.
us.
TUESDAY, FEB. 9
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation Dis-
trict, board workshop, 4 p.m., sunsetempire.
com.
TUESDAY, FEB. 16
Seaside School District, 6 p.m., www.sea-
side.k12.or.us/meetings.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work
session, cityofseaside.us.
MONDAY, FEB. 22
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., cityofseaside.
us.
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