Camp Sherman volunteer celebrates 90 years

Jim Sternberg has been a fixture in Camp Sherman for 30 years where he lives with his oldest daughter Christine Sundquist.

He is variously known as the King of Camp Sherman, the Mayor of Camp Sherman, Mountain Man, Handy Man, and the ever popular "Grumpy Old Man" designation he shares with several of his cronies who gather with him at the Camp Sherman Store and Post Office to share stories.

On May 3, he celebrated his 90th birthday - and he plans to celebrate many more.

When he first arrived at Camp Sherman, Jim was caretaker at Metolius Meadows for eight years. However, his retirement a little over 20 years ago hasn't slowed him down.

Many in Camp Sherman know about Sternberg's long history of volunteerism. He helps in the community taking care of cabins in winter and is always helping neighbors with some major building project. Since his retirement, Sternberg says he currently only has two jobs left that he is working on. He has even done some major remodeling of his own residence.

Joyce Osika, prior owner of Twin View Resort, said she and her late husband could always count on Sternberg to help them with projects at their resort. He even went out at 1 a.m. one stormy winter to round up some cold and lost horses Osika could hear bellowing behind their lodge. He returned them to their owner next morning.

Well known as the creator of the Camp Sherman sign and the sign in front of the Community Center, Sternberg also carved a personalized sign for author Dominick Dunne to put on Cabin #5 at Twin View which was later sent to Dunne at his request.

One year on a camping expedition, daughter Wendy recalled, he got too close to the end of a dock, and he fell in the water, camera and all. At Christmas, as a joke, she and her husband to be gave him a camera in a plastic bag, swim fins, a snorkel and goggles. Not to be outdone, Daddy got her back. He came to their wedding in a tux, as all good fathers would, wearing the swim fins.

December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Sternberg was on Mt. Rainer skiing with his brother Burdett. It was a warm day, he recalled, so they took a break to have lunch in their car and heard the news over the car radio. Sternberg spent the war working for Boeing in Seattle, Washington, for eight years. Starting in the engine shop, he then worked as a flight mechanic on B-17s and B-24s.

He left Boeing to take over his father's painting business in Bellevue, Washington and later owned a glass business. Simultaneously he owned the Phantom Game Farm, a pheasant farm where he kept 3,000 pheasants. Most were used for dog trials.

Sternberg met his wife when she worked for The Barrel restaurant as a carhop. They played golf on their first date and were married on July 3, 1947.

The Sternbergs had four children: Christine, twins Wendy and Wanda and a son, Russell.

Sternberg says he hopes to be around a long time. His parents were long lived, his mother living to be 102, still in her own house, taking care of herself. His father lived to be 86. Sternberg's brother, Burdett (Bud), is 96.