Jim "Sieggy" Siegfried

JIM SIEGFRIED taught Shop at MLC from 1974 or 75 until January 30, 1990, when he died of a heart attack, at school, at his bandsaw. He was particularly beloved, and is mentioned often in stories and reminiscences on this website. But nobody ever knew quite how to spell his nickname; it shows up as Siggy, Ziggy, Zigi, Sieggy, or, in the Northwest Examiner article displayed here, Siegie, or just Sieg*. The story, from the neighborhood newspaper's March 1990 edition—finally found on microfilm in the Knight Library at U of O—is a memorial written by ... someone at the Examiner, unnamed, presumably the editor or publisher. It includes voices of Sieggy's students and

Sieggy playing pool—who knows, maybe at the Moon where Amasa Gilman hired him .

colleagues, most still with us in 2026. It tells us about the wake that 500 people attended. The writing involved intimate reporting at MLC—but it does not capture the trauma young students are known to have experienced at his death. Still it captures the man ... and it is almost impossibly poignant.

*We settled on "Sieggy" because nobody since the Examiner has spelled it with anything but a "y," and "Sieg ..." is for Siegfried.

The memorial story as originally laid out, complete with 1990 ads.