Back to the beginning Nick Handy Page

STATE MARINE-SAFETY OFFICIAL TO HEAD OLYMPIA'S PORT
Byline: Al Gibbs; The Tacoma News Tribune 01-18-96
Nick Handy, a veteran state employee who is deputy director of the Office of Marine Safety, will become the Port of Olympia's new executive director. Handy, 47, was hired this week to run a port that has struggled to maintain business in recent years.
"It's clear that we need to make a transition to new products and find a new niche for the terminal," he said Wednesday. "We think this port is poised to do some great things down here." Once a thriving log export facility, Olympia's marine terminal has been little used since International Paper Co. shifted its log export operations to Tacoma about two years ago. "We recognize it's not at its optimal use now," Handy said of the Olympia port facility.
Although the port might find it difficult to raise the large amount of capital needed to finance a ship-to-rail container terminal, Handy said trying to develop what would be the third container port on Puget Sound is an option to be considered. "We certainly wouldn't rule it out," he said.
The port also operates Olympia Airport and an industrial park in Tumwater. Port commissioners have been looking for a chief executive since John Mohr left the job last year. Officials said there were 308 applicants for the post.
"Nick is well-respected in the community," said Olympia Port Commission President Bob Van Schoorl. "We're very excited about what Nick will bring to the port."
Handy, a lawyer who is married to Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey, had begun working around marine issues and ports before he joined the Office of Marine Safety in 1993. Before that he was executive assistant to then-Commissioner of Public Lands Brian Boyle. That department administers many of the state's tidelands. Handy campaigned to replace Boyle in 1992 but was defeated in the Republican primary election.
A native of Wenatchee and graduate of the University of Washington and Willamette University law school, Handy first went to work for the state as an assistant attorney general in 1975. He worked as a senior assistant attorney general and deputy attorney general, mostly with the state Natural Resources Department, before becoming Boyle's chief assistant in 1988. He and his wife have two children.
Details of his contract with the port are still being negotiated, and no date has been set for him to begin the new job.

The Tacoma News Tribune 08-28-92
IT'S HARD ENOUGH ON A COUPLE when one half is running for office, but consider the stress when both are on the stump.
Nick Handy is running for the Republican nomination for state Commissioner of Public Lands; his wife is running for re-election to the Thurston County Superior Court bench. Unfortunately, they can't get double name-recognition mileage out of their yard signs. Her name is Paula Casey.
Handy says the experience is ``somewhere between a root canal and a spinal tap.''
Their two kids - Ben, 11, and Esther, 9 - have become champs at folding and stuffing campaign literature. Because their mom is running for her third term - she won the seat in 1984 when Ben was 3 - ``they think everyone has to run for election to get a job.''
Of course, there's always a chance they'll both be out of work at the same time. Although Handy figures a sitting judge up for re-election probably is pretty safe, they're not taking any chances: ``We're both dusting off our resumes.''

The Tacoma News Tribune 10-02-92
WHAT'S IN A NICKNAME?: In a concession letter to state lands commissioner candidates Ann Anderson and Jennifer Belcher, also-ran Nick Handy extends best wishes to his former opponents and discusses their primary-election success in this Year of the Woman. In the postscript, he muses that being named Nick wasn't too handy. ``Most of you know I abandoned `Nixon' for `Nick,' he wrote. ``Next time, watch for `Nicki.' ''

Below is an e-mail I received from a former Olympia, Washington resident.

From: ~~~~~~~~@aol.com
To: Louis Bloom manaco@whidbey.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 11:34 AM
Subject: OKBR
Just came across your pages and felt the urge to respond... In the early 80's (81-83) I was at the OKBR frequently as a young kid walking to/from school, I became friends with some of the boys. At one point a small boy confided to me that he was being raped by another boy in the home. The abusing boy talked about it openly!
Days later I walked the victim to OPD where we both gave statements. Later that evening I began to receive these incredibly threatening phone calls from a woman employee of the ranch who's name I believe was Paulette at my home. She kept calling over and over screaming at me calling me names. It was horrible. I thought I was helping someone. Nothing came of it. Then all these years later, it all comes out ... one of the boys that I had known there left as a young adult and still couldn't get it together, he eventually killed himself. As an adult now I don't often think back to those times but it still saddens me. All those boys that needed a safe nurturing place to be, and how many of them were better off for having been taken there? It's not about money. It cost these boys their lives, their souls, their trust. Those people who knew, who didn't care, they should feel such shame. Just my opinion.

From: louis a bloom manaco@whidbey.net
To: ~~~~~~~@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: OKBR
thanks for your e-mail. from what i've read, dshs, the olympia police department, and other "authorities" didn't consider child on child rape to be against the law. it was considered "normal experimentation". The "paulette" you mention, may have been Collette Queener who was an assistant director at the OKBR. Collette, OKBR Director Tom Van Woerdan, and OKBR counselor Laura Rambo Russell were ineptly charged by Wa. St. with "criminal mistreatment for failing to stop abuse". The charges were dismissed by Thurston County Judge Daniel Berschauer on technicalities. The lawyer who represented Collette Queener said, (Nov. 14, 1996 Olympian), that it was a "witch hunt", and that " a more innocent person (than Queener) you could not have for a client. She's an ex-nun ..... I don't see how you could view her in an evil or negative light."
I congratulate you for doing the right thing, when all those adults looked the other way. I repeat on most pages that the " OKBR has cost the Washington State taxpayers over $35 million dollars (so far)", because I think most people don't care about the kids involved, but they may care that it has cost them (taxpayers) money.
louis bloom

manaco@whidbey.net