Photographs related to the <NN> Cannery in South Naknek, Alaska that Shirley and Carvel Zimin, Jr. look at and discuss during their interview. The photos are from the Alaska Packers Association Records held at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
Carvel Zimin, Jr.
Carvel Zimin, Jr.was born in South Naknek, Alaska to Annie and Carvel Zimin, Sr. He has a long family connection with Alaska Packers Association (APA) cannery in Naknek, with his grandfather, Nick Zimim, being winter watchman starting in 1927, then his father, Carvel Zimin, Sr., being winter watchman and storekeeper, and finally, his older brother, Clyde, being winter watchman. Carvel, Jr. officially started working for the cannery in 1977 after he graduated from high school, but as a young teen he stocked store shelves for his father. Carvel worked on the beach gang, on the cannery's fall/spring crew while commercial fishing in the summertime, and in 2001, he became the winter watchman. He has been married to Shirley (Grindle) Zimin, the daughter of his father's best friend, for forty years, and they have raised their children and grandchildren immersed in the fishing and cannery culture of the Bristol Bay region.
Shirley Zimin
Shirley (Grindle) Zimin was born in Egegik, Alaska and moved to South Naknek, Alaska in 1962, when her father started working for the Alaska Packers Association (APA) cannery as a machinist. Her mother is a descendent of the Katmai people who moved when the Novarupta volcano destroyed their Savonoski village in 1912, and settled in South Naknek. Shirley worked for APA on the fall/spring crew cleaning the buildings and doing the laundry, and worked in the cannery's mess hall and laundry during fishing season. After seventeen years at the cannery, Shirley left and opened her own hairdressing business. She has been married to Carvel Zimin, Jr., the son of her father's best friend, for forty years, and they have raised their children and grandchildren immersed in the fishing and cannery culture of the Bristol Bay region.