THE CURMUDGEON

Born in Clinton, IA, young Darwin, aged 7, moved with his family to the Phoenix, AZ area; rumors of bootlegging swirling in their dust.  

Growing up, he was influenced by his father and uncles who could figure out a fix for just about anything and who always did what needed to get done. As a teen, he worked in his father’s Signal stations, where he gained a certain interest in and confidence with machinery.  From a young age, his father, Donald, urged him to use his brain, not his hands to make a living.  

Darwin followed that advice, went to medical school, and in 1971 moved to Washington state for an internship at the University of Washington. He went on to have his medical residency and fellowship, before moving to Everett to practice.  Darwin had a successful and satisfying career in Pulmonary, Critical Care and Internal Medicine.  The thing about internal medicine is that it is well named.  At the end of the day, the fruits of your labor are largely unseen. 

And so, the restless doctor with a creative itch found an excuse, packaged as a new hobby (and then another one and another), to purchase big, fun, dangerous tools, and materials to experiment with.  

Darwin is now retired and identifies as a curmudgeonly hermit. He is still restless, does not have a reputation to protect and has a fair amount of time to create.  Darwin let’s the materials influence his creations.  He has a passion for live edge wood and each pieces’ unique possibility.  He likes foraging unusual materials and pondering their use.  Of course, he repeats favorite designs that vary by mood and methods.  Darwin shifts his energy between short term projects, longer term creations and exploring new ideas.  And he is always on the lookout for a good find. 

WDNSTL (-figure it out) was mostly created by his children to get the old curmudgeon out of the workshop and his work into the sunlight.   We are having a lot of fun learning about our Dad’s crafts and sharing the fruits of his labor with you.