Skagit River Journal
(1900 S-W Fire)
July 1911 photo of 700 block of Metcalf street after the downtown Sedro-Woolley fire. The view is to the southwest. At the top is the location of the present U.S. Post Office. That location was then the site of the original Sedro-Woolley city hall.
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More Larrabee family documents

      In this section, we will periodically share various documents to supplement our two-part profile of C.X. Larrabee and family. These first two concern the late X. Larrabee, who spent years compiling family history.

Charles X. Larrabee
Source
(X. Larrabee)
      Charles X. Larrabee, a Durham resident and the author of "Many Missions," the definitive history of Research Triangle Institute (RTI), served as the institute's manager of public information and public relations from 1964 until his retirement in 1989.
      "Working in public relations for RTI," he remarked, "was a bit like being the public relations man for apple pie."
      Larrabee spent two years at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., before serving in the Marines from 1942 to 1945. He took a position as a junior reporter and editor's assistant with the San Francisco Chronicle in 1946. From 1953 to 1956, Larrabee was assistant to the director of the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif., and he joined the staff of Collier's magazine as assistant general manager and acting fiction editor for a year afterward. From 1957 to 1964, Larrabee worked in public relations for the United Fruit Co. in Boston and Spindletop Research in Lexington, Ky.
      During his tenure at RTI, he received the Infinity Award from the Charlotte Public Relations Society. "X," as he is often called, was also president of the N.C. chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in 1973.
      In a November 1991 editorial in the North Carolina Beacon, publisher Margaret Knox wrote: "Often I feel I could never have launched my first newspaper, The Leader, without his staunch support, and he had friendly words of caution and concern about the North Carolina Beacon. 'X' is a very wise and dear man."

Charles X. Larrabee Obituary
Source
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      Bellingham native Charles X. Larrabee 2nd died June 12, 2013 at his home in Durham, N.C. He was 90 years old. He had for 26 years been the public relations director at North Carolina's Research Triangle Institute, chronicling and promoting that state's renowned University-Triangle initiative that led to a new, advanced technology dimension for the state's economy.
      He retired in 1990. Larrabee was the son and grandson of men and women who for sixty years made unparalleled contributions to Bellingham's and Whatcom County's business, civic and cultural development. He was raised on the South Side, attended the Normal campus school K-8, Fairhaven High School and Dartmouth College. During World War 2 he served for four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including overseas duty at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. He later held positions at the San Francisco Chronicle, Stanford Research Institute, Collier's magazine in New York and the United Fruit Company in Boston. Going back 100 years and more Larrabee family local philanthropies included Larrabee State Park, the YMCA building on N. Forrest Street, hundreds of acres plus capital costs for public schools, parks and libraries, as well as support to facilities for youth and the aged, and natural resource preservation investments.
      A definitive family history by Mr. Larrabee was published in 2003 as a fund-raiser for the Fairhaven High School Alimni Association, 876 South Hills Drive, Bellingham 98229. The 7600-foot Mt. Larrabee in the border region north of Mt. Baker is named for his father, Charles F. Larrabee 1895-1950. Named after his grandfather, Larrabee throughout his life was known as "X" for Xavier by family, friends, fellow workers and a steady stream of gagsters. His wife of 65 years, the former Margaret Dwelle, was a 1941 graduate of Bellingham High School. She died in 2008. The couple leaves seven children, seven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Ed. note: More documents will be posted in the coming months.
Links, background reading and sources to be added
Links to other related Larrabee stories: