ARCHIE SATTERFIELD

Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Edmonds author completes pictorial on city's centennial

BY LESLEE JAQUETTE
Special to the Journal

EDMONDS - This month Archie Satterfield, author of "The Seattle GuideBook" and many general trade books, celebrates the publication of the 126-page book he authored and produced for the City of Edmonds. "Edmonds: The First Century" offers readers a pictorial and written recollection of Edmonds' first 100 years. Available locally, the book makes Edmonds' history come alive with photos and reports Satterfield resurrected through hundreds of hours of research and interviews.
Linda McCrystal, staff coordinator for the Edmonds Centennial Committee, says “Archie was very cooperative and understanding. He considered everyone’s suggestions. That is especially difficult when working with a committee.”
The Edmonds saga is first cousin to a new kind of history book Satterfield produces with increasing regularity--the corporate history.
Author of over 20 books and countless articles, Satterfield writes histories for corporations as diverse as Alaska Airlines, Crescent Fools and Eddie Bauer. Just as the City of Edmonds wants to document its history, many corporations get a little teary-eyed as significant anniversaries roll around. Management takes the opportunity to chronicle the past for owners, employees and potential public relations use.
Satterfield, who lives in Edmonds, is a former editor and columnist for the Seattle Post-ntelligencer.
"One thing I like about corporate histories is you are dealing personally and positively with people, unlike many other kinds of books," says Satterfield from his office in Edmonds. “They are invariably fine people. They want a history because they love their company."
In 1981 Satterfield started work on his first corporate history for Alaska Airlines. The company approached Satterfield, founding editor of award-winning Northwest Living Magazine, to write a history in celebration of the airline's 50th anniversary. It was a natural union. Years before Satterfield published a number of articles and books including Chilkoot Pass, Alaska Bush Pilots and After the Gold Rush.
Alaska Airlines needed someone with Satterfield's diverse experience to piece together their history. "Archie has a knack and a flair about him,'' says Jim Johnson, Alaska Airlines senior vice president of public affairs in charge of the book. "He did an outstanding job. He captured living history.''
Johnson explains the company later used Satterfield's book as the basis for a video commemoration. Of the 1000 copies published, a tenth were special editions used by the chairman for personal gifts.
For Satterfield the Alaska Airlines Story was a benchmark. The Northwest company offered him a contract he couldn’t resist at a time he was ready for a change.
Alaska retained Satterfield for 18 months and he traveled all over the country accumulating material for the book. Together with royalties from over a dozen books, the corporate history helped Satterfield become self-employed.
In addition, the previous year, Satterfield came into contact with well-known family/corporate historian, Richard V. Sawyer of Seattle. Sawyer shared the fundamentals of writing corporate histories with Satterfield and the two writers traded clients. One of these trades started Satterfield's three-book relationship with Eddie Bauer, the first titles in the Eddie Bauer Outdoor Library Series.
"Sometimes I think I should be writing best sellers," Satterfield joked. "But I'm a journalist. I report and write. Besides, I think writing these histories is interesting and enormously useful."
There is a number of similarities when it comes to researching projects. According to Satterfield, the writer needs to interview key people, have access to company archives and allowed time to research all kinds of clippings and articles, usually preserved by a single person, "a keeper of clips."
One of a handful of writers in the region who write corporate histories, Satterfield wrote a history for Crescent Foods Inc. in celebration of the Seattle company's 100th anniversary in 1983. Former owner Dick Weaver says Satterfield produced exactly what the company wanted, a very conservative chronicle that they used for gifts and public relations work. Satterfield supplied the owners with outlines and transcriptions of every interview.
"I guess the toughest part is deciding who gets mentioned and who doesn't,'' says Weaver with humor in his voice. "Ultimately we made joint decisions in all these matters with Archie's help."
Companies interested in creating corporate histories need to be aware that it takes at least a year to put together a book. It is most helpful if one person is in charge of the publication details. This person can usually push for decisions faster and easier than “book by committee."
However, Satterfield notes one main frustration with corporate histories: It is hard to separate businessmen from work long enough to interview them. “You realize your project is a low priority for a busy company.”
A number of clients approach Satterfield not to write their copy but simply to edit and produce their story. A founders committee at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond chose that option. They wanted to save money and author their own words, yet they needed professional help to finish the anniversary history, "Sahalee Country Club: The First Twenty Years."
"It was their book," says Satterfield, who has similarly edited and produced a history for the Seattle Surgical Society. "They paid me for a variety of things but mostly I helped them do what they wanted to do. A good editor helps the writer accomplish his goals."
Chairman and founding member Harry Wilson says, "Archie was delightful to work with. He did a great job proofing our writing. We are very pleased."
Sahalee board members initially expressed doubts about Satterfield's ability to write about the club because he wasn't an experienced golfer. Satterfield says that is a common fear.
People assume you can't write about something unless you are a professional in the field. When, actually, by the time Satterfield researches a company or subject for a year or more he has become quite educated in corporate that area.
"You learn to listen," says Satterfield. "It's fun to learn about new things. In fact, it's a lot like getting a masters degree.”
Since the conclusion of the Edmonds pictorial, Satterfield has focused his energies toward a fall completion of his second World War II book, "The Day the War Began." It is largely an oral history of peoples' remembrances of Dec. 7, 1942, the day the bombed Pearl Harbor. Satterfield says the military side of the war has been covered. But his book looks at what civilians all over the country were doing on that date and how the war affected the remainder of their lives.