Glenn E. Sutt

Glenn E. Sutt, age 70, of Olympia, Washington, passed away suddenly on February 3, 2017. Glenn was the oldest son of Victor and Kathryn Sutt, born in Pontiac, Michigan, on February 20, 1946. The Sutt family is known for its humor, especially in its lower form of puns. Coincidentally, the first born of the Victor Sutt family was named Glenn E. Sutt. Our mother’s maiden name is Glennie. Glenn graduated from Pontiac Central High in 1964, the same school as our parents and became a Spartan in the glory years of Michigan State University football. He started the trend of the family becoming imprinted Green and White. That continued through his entire life, which never wavered and always dreaded the Maze and Blue, anything Irish and of course the nuts called Buckeyes. Incidentally, he did graduate in 1968 with a marketing degree, which guided him to his first job as an assistant buyer at Hudsons, Detroit’s largest department store in this era. He formed many close lifetime friends from this relationship since many of them had similar interests such as skiing, sailing and, of course, partying. It’s surprising he survived this period. Fortunately the GM cars he drove protected him through crashes and rolls. After Hudsons, Glenn had several sales jobs with ski glove makers and word processing products to compete with IBM. He did these jobs to fuel his hobbies of skiing, sailing and photography. When he finally got his first “big boy’s job” with Campbell Ewald, Chevy’s marketing firm, he picked up stakes, leaving his comfortable surroundings of Hammond Lake and moved to Kansas City. He was now independent and on his own for the first time. No family or old friends within hundreds of miles. As always he made new friends quickly and warmed to his new life. He bought a racing sailboat and enjoyed many hours on the water, competing in his usual sports, mindedness becoming an expert yachtsmen. He was also closer to the ski slopes of Colorado, which he went to regularly. He even used his marketing skills to talk our parents into buying a condominium in Keystone, Colorado. We all prospered from that endeavor, spending several family vacations in this beautiful country, golfing in the summer and skiing in the winter. Many a great memories have remained. When Glenn’s interest waned from this job he began to look elsewhere. You see, Glenn was a highly motivated sole. Whenever his interest turned, he jumped in feet first and never looked back. All he would ever talk about were these new interests. Some lasted his entire life. But most were fleeting. When he lost the passion, he became a curmudgeon and lost several jobs, arguing that his way was the only way. It made life painful for him but that was how he was programmed. He had to be passionate for what he did. That’s what made him so unique. He found a marketing job on the West Coast with Red Lion Inn and took his sailboat and birds (forgot his aviary hobby—a macaw and amazon parrot). He bought his first home, then eventually custom built his second home on a hill top where he could view Mt. Rainer from his picture window. It didn’t take him long to call the great Northwest home. And new friends and interests became his new focus. Glenn always had some interest in the Indian culture when our family took trips throughout the US but it became a passion when the Northwest became his home. He learned about their culture and how the white man, mostly woodsmen and trappers, interacted with them. He involved himself in reenactments called Rendevous, dressing and camping as a trapper for weekends and competing in knife throwing and musket rifle shooting. At this time, he added a German Shepherd to his family who also participated in these hobbies. Molly was his companion for many years. Glenn always loved shepherds. He had four in his life: Duke, Thor, Molly and Kata. (Kata will find a good home in our family.) Not only did Glenn began to buy historical artifacts, he honed his skills into making guns, rifles and knives. At first, he worked from kits but as his skill grew, he looked to build replicas from scratch. This became one of those lifetime passions that ended only with his passing. When Glenn parted with Red Lion Inn, his longest unemployment period began. He was looking for a job to fit his marketing skill set but it was difficult because he loved where he lived and jobs were not abundant in this area. This was a time of much sole searching and his enthusiasm had waned. About the time he had given up hope in finding something meaningful, a pizza chain called Papa Aldo’s gave him a chance. This was a major turning point of his professional life. Again he hit the job with both barrels, helping this local franchise chain to grow with his marketing skills. He helped the individual franchisees to grow their stores. He was so successful that the company was acquired by another restaurant chain called Murphy’s. The two merged their names to become Papa Murphy’s. This merger was a blessing in disguise for Glenn. The new marketing team and Glenn did not see eye to eye. Glenn had no tolerance for this new plan. But a new idea popped into his head. “If I can make franchisees successful, then I can do it for myself.” He sold corporate on this idea and moved to Olympia to run his own store. It didn’t take long to prove this was the right idea for both him and Papa Murphy’s. His store became the fastest growing revenue store that year, earning him another store in the Olympia area. Over the next several years, he added another store. This gave Glenn the ability to be able to afford a manager to oversee the stores so Glenn wasn’t tied down making pizzas for the rest of his life. Glenn’s franchise success was one of the pinnacles of his life. It allowed him the comfort of pursuing his passions in horticulture, rifle replica creations, powder horn recreations, wood turning and his latest, finding our ancestors. He kept saying he was going to retire. But we all LOL and said what would you do differently if you “retired”? He also saw the humor and somewhat agreed but did foresee removing some of his headaches down the road. Although Glenn never found a suitable female companion his entire life, it wasn’t because he was not interested. It seemed he was always in pursuit but long-term commitment never seemed to occur. As he grew older and became more independent, the perfect match seemed unattainable. I believed it bothered family and friends more than him. He seemed content being the Northwest trapper, living independently. Glenn lived frugally, buying his clothes second-hand and replacing his tires with slightly used tires. But Glenn spent his money and his time on his passions. Several years ago, he built his dream house in the Northwest woods so he could house his various collections, a workshop to build these replicas, and a place to protect his dream car. He also spent many hours and donations at Fort Nisqually and the Lelooska Cultural Center. He was the president of the fort’s fundraising foundation for many years. I believe it will be difficult for the fort’s staff not see Glenn being inside the stockades reenacting a tradesman or helping to restore their buildings. He loved that place and always talked glowingly about it. We all wish Glenn’s life would have been longer but his life was full. He was passionate, always enjoyed a laugh in the Sutt tradition, and worked hard at keeping the family together after the passing of our parents, Victor and Kathryn Sutt. Glenn is survived by his sister, Kathy Mattis; brother, Randy; brother-in-law, Herb Mattis; nieces, Amanda Sutt, Lynn and RegGina Mattis; nephews, Matt and Mike Mattis and Hugh Thompson; grandnieces, Olivia, Geneva, Ainsley and Lainey Mattis, and Imogen Thompson; and grandnephew, Nicholas Mattis. Glenn is proceeded in death by his sister-in-law, Cindy Sutt. Please leave memories of Glenn or condolences for the family in the Guestbook below.