Edmund Ellis was on his way to San Francisco from Minneapolis in April of 1906 to take a job with “The Phone Company.” The great earthquake happened on April 18th and the job disappeared with it. He was offered a job in Minneapolis but instead opted to return to the west coast to fill a position with the U.S. Customs Service in Port Townsend, Washington.
He moved the family to Seattle in 1917 where his son, also named Edmund, began a lifelong career in the shipping industry at the tender age of 12. Edmund II founded a shipping agency, Cascade Shipping Company, in 1968 with offices covering the U.S. west Pacific and Vancouver BC.
“The best way to befriend an enemy is to engage with them.”
—Edmund Ellis II
Edmund II’s son, also named Edmund, traveled to Japan in 1973 to work for a Japanese ship owner. Edmund III returned to open an office for the ship owner in Vancouver BC where he and his wife, Joanne, had their three children: Christina, Charles and Robyn.
Edmund III founded San Juan Navigation on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1996. San Juan eventually owned and operated 28 freighters trading cargoes to and from ports all over the globe.
The Ellis family founded The Ellis Foundation in 2009 with a view towards sharing their good fortune to help worthwhile organizations flourish and spread equity and social justice locally and around the world.