Bernard Einar Skud

OAK HARBOR, Wash. - Bernard Einar Skud, 87, died at his home in Oak Harbor on April 16, 2014.

Bernie was the son of Ferdinand and Elma (Hendrickson) Skud, born Jan. 31, 1927, in Ironwood. He attended George N. Sleight Elementary School and graduated from Luther L. Wright High School. He delivered papers as a boy and as a member of the L.L. Wright basketball team in 1943, sank a shot at the buzzer to beat Wakefield.

Bernie served in U.S. Navy during World War II, and was a lifetime member of American Legion Post 5 in Ironwood. He received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from University of Michigan. In 1950, he married Patricia Duffin of Wakefield, daughter of Wakefield teacher and coach F.W. Duffin and Kathryn Duffin, who taught in Ironwood Township schools.

Bernie worked as a marine biologist for 40 years, including work for the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in Alaska, Maine and the Gulf of Mexico. He started his career with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Seattle and Alaska, was assistant director of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Laboratory in Galveston, Texas, from 1958 to 1960 and Director of the Bureau's laboratory in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, from 1961 to 1970. From 1970 to 1978, Bernie was director of the International Pacific Halibut Commission in Seattle. He was division chief at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Washington D.C. and scientific advisor in Narragansett, R.I., from 1978 to 1985, and became director of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, serving from 1986 to 1991.

Bernie was president of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists from 1982-'84, a life member of the American Fisheries Society, and published more than 100 technical papers and popular articles on salmon, herring, lobsters, halibut and mackerel. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1967-'68. He was an adjunct professor in the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington and University of Rhode Island, and traveled to 36 countries on business and pleasure. He retired to Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island in Washington, and remained active in fishery matters.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Patricia, of Oak Harbor; three sons, Timothy Skud, of Alexandria, Va., Ferd Skud of Anchorage, Alaska, Eric (Ann) Skud, of Redmond, Wash .; and a sister, Elaine (Robert) Allen, of Palo Alto, Calif. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Joan Heinbaugh.