Seattle's big, warm & booming voice signs off

Donald Courtnay
voice of many Seattle-area radio, TV commercials

By Arla Shephard

July 23, 2008

Donald Courtnay had a "big,
warm and booming" voice,
says colleague Dean Smith

To many, Donald Courtnay was the classic voice of Seattle in the 1950s. To his family and friends, he was a classic gentleman.

"What can I say, except that he was a wonderful man?" said his wife of 34 years, Gay Courtnay.

Mr. Courtnay, best known for his voice-over work in local commercials, died of natural causes July 14 in his Sammamish home. He was 84.

His family and friends remember him as a loving father and husband who took care of everyone around him. He was a "perfect gentleman," his wife said.

"If there was a lady in the room, he was always opening the door, graciously greeting everyone," she said. "It came to the point where when people would light a cigarette, they would just sort of stand there and wait for him to light it because he was always Johnny-on-the-spot with that."

Mr. Courtnay was born in Chicago on Feb. 22, 1924, and served in the Navy during World War II. He was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a major in the Washington State National Guard and a 32nd-degree member of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

With his booming and inviting voice, he began a radio career in Salt Lake City in the 1940s. During the 1950s he moved to Seattle, where he became a widely recognized voice-over artist through his work with KING and KIRO television and KJR radio station. He later became general manager of KCPQ television in Seattle.

"He was, of course, the freelance voice in town," said colleague Dean Smith, who met him in 1962 and worked with him at KJR. "If there were 10 voice-overs to do in town, he would probably do nine of them. He had a wonderful voice and was the type of guy you could just respect."

Among his accomplishments, Mr. Courtnay is best recognized as the voice of Safeway for 19 years, with his signature line in commercials: "Shop Safeway — you'll see!"

"Everyone of course envied Don. He had that quintessential announcer-man voice: big, warm and booming," Smith said. "About every other commercial you'd hear Don's voice."

Mr. Courtnay first met his future wife in the early 1950s when they worked together in Seattle. She later moved to California, and it wasn't until 1973 when he came to Los Angeles on a business trip that they reunited, she said. They were married a year later.

"He loved my mom so much and he was so good," said his stepdaughter, Randi White, of Los Angeles. She wrote in his online guest book: "From the moment Don began his courtship of our mother, (in the true old-fashioned manner) one could sense that this love would grow into one that might move mountains."

Later in life, Mr. Courtnay went into the heating business and continued to do freelance work for heating companies after his retirement, designing boiler installations in Alaska.

White remembers her stepfather as protective and attentive to everyone in the family. When her grandmother could no longer walk, she said, Mr. Courtnay was "the one who was carrying her."

"When it came time to speak at a memorial or funeral, with his beautiful voice he would say exactly what was in our hearts," she said.

He is survived by his wife, Gay Courtnay, of Sammamish; his sons James and Jason Grimmer from a previous marriage, both of the Puget Sound area; and stepchildren Randi White of Los Angeles and Evan White of Pleasanton, Calif.

A celebration of his life will be held at a later date. Friends are invited to share memories at http://www.flintofts.com.

Arla Shephard: 206-515-5632 or ashephard@seattletimes.com

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