Gordon 'Skip' Rognlien, 83

Dyvart Gordon Rognlien Jr., known by all as “Skip,” died at age 83 in OHSU Hospital, Portland, on April 5, 2018, of complications arising from a traffic collision two miles south of his home in Wheeler, Oregon, on March 27.

Born to Dyvart Gordon Rognlien and Myrna M. (Cole) Rognlien in Kalispell on Nov. 1, 1934, he was raised in Kalispell and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Montana, Missoula. He was selected for and trained at the Balanchine School of American Ballet in Manhattan for a year before returning to his first love, theater, which he pursued for the next 50 years in New York City, Sacramento and San Francisco. He was founding president of the Times Squares square-dancing club of Manhattan. For a time, he was a contractor with IBM’s Media Gallery, and was the principal of Staging Techniques, LLC, which staged trade, shows for major corporations. He built a home and moved to Wheeler in 2010 after running a B&B in the Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood of Portland. Skip became a well-known craft artist in the Nehalem Bay area, specializing in leaded windows, fused glass, weaving, knitting and bonsai, and was a regular prize winner at the Tillamook County Fair. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Phil and Mary Margaret Rognlien, of Bigfork, and a sister, Mary Salsbury, of Post Falls, Idaho.

His keen intelligence, quick wit and multi-faceted creativity will be greatly missed by many adoring friends across the country.

Donations in his honor may be made to the Point Foundation (pointfoundation.org) or the Lou Stine fund of the Latimer Quilt Museum of Tillamook, Oregon.

A celebration of life will be announced at a future date. For additional information contact Steve Fulmer at 503-233-0650.