Swede Pedersen: The Blond Saint
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 12:52AM By Larry Clinton, President
You’ve probably heard of Swede’s Beach, the small secluded hideaway on Shelter Cove down some rickety stairs at the end of Valley Street in Sausalito’s “old town.” The man the beach is named after, Ralph “Swede” Pedersen, was quite a local legend.
According to the January, 1960 issue of Marin This Month magazine, “Swede grew up in Sausalito and once reminisced that when he was a youngster there wasn’t much for boys to do -- except scaring bootleggers who used Shelter Cove for rum running. ‘It’s a wonder we weren’t killed,’ he marveled.”
But Swede could take care of himself at an early age, winning a Golden Gloves light heavyweight trophy when he was 18. After duty during WWII in the Pacific with the Army Engineers, Swede worked as a rigger at Marinship, and after the war ended began his fireman career under Sausalito Fire Chief Matthew J. Perry. He served as a fireman and first aid specialist, and his work on the ambulance drew the respect and gratitude of “hundreds of Southern Marinites and unfortunate accident victims on Highway 101,” according to the magazine, which reported: “It was one of these who called him a saint. A woman phoned the Sausalito News to ask, ‘Who is that huge blond saint on the Sausalito ambulance?’ She continued: ‘It was an awful accident, and when I came to that great man had hold of my hand and was talking to me so calmly and so surely that all the screams I had ready just died away, and I knew I was going to be alright’.”
Marin this Month added: “When Swede Pedersen was told that someone called him a saint it knocked him put. ‘Saints are getting mighty peculiar if I’m supposed to be like one,’ he retorted. And he didn’t look pleased or modest. As far as he was concerned someone had made a fool remark.”
Swede married Patricia Elk in 1944, and they had three children. But, noted the magazine, “more than any other one person in Sausalito, his spare time is devoted to all the youngsters of Sausalito.
“He has been with Little League since it started and he is in the middle of every phase of its operation. He is on the local committee for the Boy Scouts of America and was one of the first to be called upon to assist in the formation of the new Sausalito Committee for Teenagers.
“Despite all his activities, Swede has become decidedly portly, which makes for a more authentic Santa Claus that flies into Sausalito every Christmas season. Greeting this Santa Claus who works for them about every day of the year, are most of the city’s youngsters, a few of whom he has delivered himself when the stork’s wings caught up with the ambulance .
“But wherever he is his ear is stretched towards the fire horn that has hauled him for 16 years out of parties, movies, bed and church.
“We didn’t interview Swede for this article - - he would have laughed us down the street - but his wife Pat told us with assurance, ‘Swede would hear that whistle if he were in Sacramento’.”
Santa Swede at Vina del Mar Park fountain circa 1960.
Photo courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society
Reader Comments (1)
Thanks for sharing, i've been searching for blond saint to cheer up a girl from holland, but yet the story was very well written and insightful. Thanks.