Ernest Suko worked for the Olympia School District from 1927 to 1969. A man of many talents, he impacted countless students as a teacher, orchestra director, coach and principal.
From the Russian Empire to Eastern Washington
Ernest “Ernie” Suko was born June 15, 1904 in Warden. His parents, Ferdinand (1864-1940) and Maria Widmer (1871-1960) Suko, were among the many German Russians who left the Russia/Ukraine borderlands to settle in Eastern Washington. Arriving in 1902, Ernest was their first son and second child born in America. Growing up on a farm, he had 13 siblings.
Suko attended Cheney Normal School, now Eastern Washington University. He started his long teaching career in the mid-1920s at a one-room schoolhouse in Eastern Washington. There he needed to be not only the teacher, but bus driver, custodian, and principal as well.
Ernest Suko Heads to Olympia
Suko’s life changed forever when he came to Olympia in 1927 to teach “departmental upper grades” (or eighth grade, according to his obituary) at Lincoln Elementary School. Besides teaching, he directed the school’s orchestra and served as athletic director, coaching football and basketball.
In 1930,Suko was appointed principal of the McKinley School. This former school was located on what was then the rural outskirts of Olympia. The site is now home to the Olympia Regional Learning Academy. Suko’s promotion was part of a policy, district superintendent L.P. Brown told the Daily Olympian, to train promising young male teachers for leadership positions and promote them when vacancies opened. Suko had shown such promise.
Suko was principal of McKinley for five years. Besides administration, he also coached basketball and baseball. This proved hazardous in April 1932. As Suko was leaving the playfield to end recess, he was hit in the head by a flying baseball bat discarded by a careless student. Knocked unconscious for several minutes, Suko drove himself to a doctor. He had only recovered from appendicitis three months before.
In June 1932 Suko married Evelyn Frances Mercer (1912-1987) on the lawn of her parents’ home on Bigelow Avenue. He spent the summer attending a training school at the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma. Over the years, Suko earned administration and educational degrees from the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran College, Western Washington State College, and Standford University. He was also active with principal and educational associations.
The couple welcomed a daughter, Joann Marie, in 1936. In 1954 she married Jim Kroll (1933-2009), then stationed at Fort Lewis. The couple later moved to Arizonia. Joann played saxophone like her father, and the accordion.
Garfield Elementary School Principal
In 1935, Suko was made principal of Garfield Elementary School, a job he held for over three decades. As principal he oversaw the school’s many activities including parties, fairs, concerts and carnivals. He was “honored” at the 1937 school carnival when students gave a skit “Teachers’ Meeting.” “The ‘get up’ was excellent,” the Daily Olympian reported, “right down to Suko’s feet, planked on the desk.”
Suko also directed the beginning orchestra for a time and was active with the school’s PTA. As part of the PTA’s annual graduation celebrations, he showed then and now movies he had taken of the sixth grade class as first graders. Concerned about his students beyond the classroom, Suko led the school district’s child welfare committee in the late 1930s. He began annual pre-summer break CPR classes at Garfield in 1951and chaired Thurston County’s March of Dimes in 1963.
Ernest Suko was Active in the Olympia Community
Outside of school, Ernest Suko was an active member of the community. He was a leader in the Olympia Host Lions Club, serving as vice president, board member and chair of committees on sight conservation and aid to the visually impaired. In 1940, he was elected president. Suko helped organize the Lion’s Ice Carnival and Funfest at the Olympia Ice Arena in 1941. He also won their 1943 golf championship.
Ernest Suko also belonged to the Eagles, serving in various capacities including trustee, state convention delegate and event organizer. In 1941 he was president. An avid fisherman, he organized and promoted the Eagles’s annual salmon derby at Johnson’s Point in the 1950s.
Ernest Suko Retirement
After 42 years with the Olympia school district, Suko retired in 1969. His wife Evelyn also retired from 19 years with the Internal Revenue Service. But retirement did not slow Suko down. He could now devote his time to his two side-careers: commercial fishing and music. Ernest Suko operated a salmon trawler out of Olympia, fishing summers at Neah Bay and La Push.
He played the saxophone with the “Professors’ Quartette” in the 1940s with fellow teachers. Besides playing the clarinet, he directed dance bands for 57 years. He led the South Bay Grange orchestra in the late 1920s. During the 1940s “Ernie Suko and His Rhythm Boys” entertained locals and soldiers alike. In 1945 they performed at a benefit dance for the Disabled American Veterans at the Olympia Armory.
After retirement, “Ernie Suko and His Band” played regularly for the Eagles, at events like “Old Timers Night.” He told reporters that he preferred old favorites songs like “Stardust” and “Dancing In the Dark.”
Suko was a top player in the senior citizens bowling league. He remained active with bowling, music and fishing until his death on September 4, 1983. His wife Evelyn passed away in 1987 in Arizona.
Ernest Suko was a man of many talents. A leader in both education and Olympia, his legacy lives on in the countless students he impacted and the community he loved.
