Ben K. and Marian Weatherwax Scholarship

Ben K. Weatherwax is perhaps most widely remembered as the popular radio commentator whose “Hometown Scrapbook” series kept pre-television listeners entertained and informed with local history and current affairs.

 A graduate of Weatherwax High School, he attended Washington State College, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State College. In World War II, he served in the Marine Corps, surviving Pearl Harbor and fighting primarily in the South Pacific. 

He worked in radio before and after the war, starting in 1934. His was one of the state’s first newscasts on KXRO, and later owning station KBKW. 

Ben started his career as an architect, however, at a Seattle firm in 1931. Five years after his 1934 marriage to Marian Abel, he founded Weatherwax and Street, the Aberdeen firm which he and Robert Street reorganized after the war. 

By 1952 Ben’s work as a building contractor had become his main focus. He built in all over 160 homes on Grays Harbor. 

A member of the American Legion and VFW, he also served on Aberdeen’s School Board and was an active member of the Western Washington Contractors’ Association.