Vern Hartvigson Family Fund

Vern Hartvigson was a multi-award winning master woodworker and furniture designer. Vern was an inextinguishable flame of creativity and inspiration. His work was evocative, organic, and inventive. Many of his clients became beloved friends and collaborators. He was loved dearly by his wife and children and their families.

On November 22, Vern died unexpectedly at his home. He had been fighting the adverse effects of congestive heart failure for several months, but appeared to be stable and not in advanced decline.

My father was many things and accomplished much in his life. He was born and raised on a small ranch in Baker, Idaho. He was a US Army veteran, serving during the Berlin Wall Crisis. He worked in a plywood mill in Oregon, and attended college and established his first cabinet shop there. He then moved to Alaska in 1973, re-established himself and prospered. During the years of 1980-81, he was a special student of renown author and master Danish furniture designer Dr. Tage Frid at Rhode Island School of Design, which reignited his passion of woodworking, and elevated his work and purpose to true art. Vern won several “Best in Woods” and “Juror’s Choice” awards in various “Earth, Fire, and Fibre” juried art shows held by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. His furniture and cabinets have been in homes all across Alaska, in California, Colorado, Vermont, and Georgia. But beyond all of those things, his greatest accomplishment was being a valiant and devoted husband of 64 years, and a beloved father to his five children.

His passing has left his family devastated. As his son and helper, I can speak for how overwhelming his loss is to all of us. However, the one who has lost the most is Vern’s wife, my mother, Eva Hartvigson. For her, the anguish is beyond description, and the temporal burden left behind is exceedingly challenging. It is for her sake that this campaign was established.

Your contribution will help Eva so that she can address the unexpected hardship of his unresolved debts and expenses that none of us were anticipating and are far greater than our ability to surmount. It will allow her and the rest of our family to concentrate on our healing and honoring our late father, to lessen the challenges the financial aftermath Vern’s passing has brought, and ensuring a measure of stability for his wife in the coming days. Thank you, and God bless.