Randall Updike, known to everyone as Uppy, ran Buechel’s Marina in Union for most of his adult working life. That’s how I came to know him. A sweet guy with rough hands, a big smile, and a permanent squint from years in the sun despite the fisherman’s cap he wore. He had huge powerful arms from rolling his wheelchair up and down the gangway. His bulk required a sizable chair but there was always room for me on his lap for a ride down to the dock.

​

Born in Ohio in 1915, Uppy came to Hood Canal sometime after he lost the use of legs in the Battle of Anzio in World War II and spent time recovering at a Veterans hospital in San Diego. A fixture on the Canal, the Marina his fiefdom. It was old, rotten in places, a little grubby if you looked closely. It smelled of the shore, discarded fishing gear and engine oil. But he ruled it, and from the accounts of guys who worked for him, he ruled it with a kind, gentle hand. An avid fisherman, he owned an old tugboat seen out on the water every day of fishing season, always at the wheel, his chair secured to a raised platform.

​

Uppy was well known for his good humor and good deeds. A dedicated member of the Lions Club, he organized events and showed up to serve food, tell stories, and convince people to give a donation, no matter how small. He organized the Hood Canal Boat Races in the early 1960s which the Lions later sponsored. Hydroplanes and outboard runabouts ran in nine or ten heats between Union and Bald Point, drawing up to 3,000 spectators every August. Uppy was always out in his tug monitoring the race and cheering on his favorites.

​

We heard endless dramatic stories about Uppy over the years. The time he drove his Cadillac convertible into the Canal on his way home late one night. Flipped it over. Fortunately, the tide was out and someone came along shortly after to call for a rescue. Miraculously, he did not suffer serious injury. Then, the time his wife Lillian had taken the elevator in their home from street level down to the first floor living area and had not sent it back up to the garage. Uppy rolled his chair from the car into the space where the elevator should have been and found only empty air. This accident sent him to the hospital for an extended stay, but he recovered.

​

My favorite story, however, was the day Uppy and Lil went for a swim. They had a sling lift on their dock to pull him out when he finished. A tourist driving by saw Lil roll the wheelchair to the edge of the dock and tip Uppy in. The woman raced up the road to the Alderbrook Resort, jumped out of her car, and demanded to use a phone. “A woman is killing her crippled husband,” she reported to the sheriff. “I saw her do it. She dumped him out of his wheelchair into the water.”

​

In his later years Uppy experienced health problems common for people with spinal cord injuries. He made regular trips to VA hospitals in Seattle and California, pale and puffy looking on his return. But his smile and good humor persisted until he died at age 84 in 1999. Lillian died a year later.