Robert Gerald (Bob) Kuzaro, seen falling a tree in 1982, was born in Black Diamond on February 11, 1924. His mother, Roxie (Kaluzny) Kuzaro died from hemorrhages within hours after giving birth to Bob, her twelfth child. His father, Joseph was a coal miner, first in Franklin and later in Black Diamond. Joe Kuzaro also died tragically, in December 1941 a year and a half after suffering a debilitating injury in the Strain Company’s Ginder Lake Mine, located north of Black Diamond and west of Lake 12. Joseph and Roxie (Kaluzny) Kuzaro were of Polish descent and are buried in Franklin’s Our Lady of Holy Rosary Cemetery, adjacent to the Catholic Church where they were married in 1905. That church was later razed by burning after Franklin’s decline as a coal mining town.
This Jan. 1982 photo was taken as Bob Kuzaro chain-sawed the final cut to fall a Douglas fir tree near Lake Sawyer. The photographer, Bill Kombol was his longtime admirer and the author of this column, who owned the lakefront lot. After the tree came down, Kuzaro made a fresh cut across the stump and the two men carefully counted each tree ring using Bob’s pocket knife to keep mark of their place. The tree was over 200 years old.
As a result of his mother’s death, Bob’s first two years were spent in Seattle under the care of his Aunt Teresa Zido. Her husband Dan Zido, a Polish butcher opened Dan’s Better Meats, an icon of the Pike Place Market which later morphed into Don & Joe’s Meat. Bob’s oldest sister, Helen (later Poleski) quit school in her senior year to help raise the younger children, including Bob who returned to the family’s home at New Lawson. Their father, Joseph purchased a home and 20 acres of farmland just east of Botts Drive in 1920. After graduating from Black Diamond High School in 1942, Bob stayed home to manage the farm as his older brothers joined the war effort.
Just out of high school, Bob followed in his late father’s footsteps and became a coal miner. Two years later he married Gail Macfarlane. Gail’s parents, Tom and Naomi Macfarlane moved from Coalmont, Colorado to Black Diamond in 1932, where Tom took a new job in the mines. At the end of World War II, the Kuzaros and Macfarlanes moved to Jonestown, Alaska, a coal mining town about 60 miles northeast of Alaska. Tom Macfarlane became Superintendent of the Evan Jones Coal Mine which experienced a 1937 explosion that claimed the lives of 14 of the 19 men working. Bob was employed there as a miner. After five years in Alaska, both families moved back to Black Diamond in 1950. Bob and Gail resided in the Railroad Avenue home her parents purchased in 1942. Tom and Naomi bought a house one-half mile further south.
Back in Black Diamond, both Bob and Tom went to work for Palmer Coking Coal Company – Bob as a miner and Tom as a supervisor. Three years later, Bob Kuzaro started his own logging company. During his first years, he cut mine props used to support the underground tunnels in Palmer’s coal mines. Kuzaro Logging had a long association with Palmer Coking Coal, though he occasionally worked for other landowners. Bob generally worked alone, but his brother, Leonard joined him for a brief time, and his son, Gerald worked at his side for five years. While Bob worked in the woods, Gail raised their three children, Gerald (named after Gail’s brother), Daneel, and Kim. After 37 years of logging, Bob retired in 1990 at age 66. He died four years later in 1994 at their longtime home. Gail lived another 25 years, passing peacefully in her sleep in 1999.
Much of the Kuzaro, Kaluzny, and Macfarlane family histories comes courtesy of the Black Diamond Historical Museum and its extensive archives.
