Chris J Lyden

Chris was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, living in the same home until he went to college. He was the only child of Carl and Ellie Lyden and was fortunate to have a very close bond with each of his parents. They shared with Chris their love of the outdoors, travel, fishing, fixing things, dogs, family, and building relationships with people from all walks of life.

Chris recalled that during his childhood he was rarely at home on the weekends. Regardless of the season he and his parents took the family trailer and went camping or on trips to their relatives in Westport, Minnesota, California, Oregon, or Nebraska. All journeys included fishing! Chris’s passion for fishing was a constant throughout his life. At home there was always a family dog, including Zeus, the German Shepherd that Chris’s dad brought with him from the military. Zeus was not fond of mom, Ellie, and Chris learned he could escape trouble from her by hanging in the yard with Zeus. Carl raced sprint cars and taught Chris how to repair them. And pretty much anything else mechanical. An entrepreneur even at a young age, Chris started his first business venture, fixing lawnmowers, in the fifth grade. Always curious, Chris would take apart anything and put it back together in better condition than how it started. He did, however, have the bad habit of dropping parts, nuts, bolts, and the like wherever he was working. Somehow, he always managed to find the right pieces again, but it drove anyone else who was working with him crazy! This habit never went away! Just prior to high school Chris acquired a Mach 1 Mustang that he lovingly rebuilt. Later came a raised Ford pickup followed by a long line of other vehicles he worked on over the years.

As Chris got older he engaged in more and more athletic activities. By the sixth grade he was 6’0” tall and weighed 180 pounds! Not only was he the biggest kid on most of the teams but he was also extremely fast. He excelled as the goalie in soccer, pinned the competition in wrestling, played baseball and basketball, raced and threw in track, and quickly became coveted by the coaches for football. He set records at Baker Junior High and Foss High School. Chris was honored as a Junior Superstar for all-around excellence in athletics and he and Ellie shared a special trip together when he competed in the Regional Junior Superstar event at the University of Southern California in 1979. At Foss High Chris continued to compete in football, wrestling and track. He earned accolades and post-season awards in all three sports and upon graduation in 1982, accepted a football scholarship to Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, WA.

At PLU Chris immediately made friends with several other members of the football team. Fellow lineman, Mark Rill, was his roommate for all four years, and they buddied up to live with Walt Miles and Tad Arstein by their junior year. Chris played on the defensive line for PLU’s outstanding football team and lettered all four years. His senior year even found him making multiple interceptions from his nose tackle position. Many other friends were made quickly as Chris was always outgoing, kind and eager to invite others to join the circle of friends. It didn’t hurt that Mark and Chris were also known to offer pizza in their dorm room to their guests! PLU is where Chris met his future wife, Ingrid Nussle, and they became engaged during their senior year in November of 1985. Their wedding followed on August 23, 1986, with their large group of mutual friends all participating in the ceremony. The event included the many Danish traditions from Ingrid’s family that Chris enthusiastically embraced. Chris graduated from PLU in 1986 with a degree in Business Administration and a computer science minor.

Following college, Chris first worked for Miles Sand and Gravel before moving on to a Seattle-based, but Japanese-owned company, AKC Fishing, in 1990. He was named President of this company and gained invaluable, but trying, experience there. Throughout the 1990’s Chris continued working in Seattle in the fishing industry. He worked at Pacific Orion Seafoods, American Seafoods/American Seafood Russia, Ocean Beauty, and then for many years at Dalmore Product where he ran the three best producing Russian Trawlers out of fifteen that had been built in Spain. In 2000 Chris began doing consulting and project management work. In 2007, tired of commuting, he accepted the COO position in Woodland, WA with Hartley’s, working with value-added seafood. Eventually the work at Hartley’s led to him teaming up with partners from Indiana and the formation of what is now known as Pacific Food Solutions. Chris loved being the CEO and traveling the world to get companies on board to utilize their patented pure protein process. Chris’s skill and expertise in food science was gained through trial and error, consulting with others, his insatiable curiosity, and his willingness to work hard and try anything. He has several patents and relished the challenges the work and the process brought to his life. Chris was still working and passionate about what the process could offer until his untimely passing.

Chris and Ingrid began their married life living in the basement waterfront apartment that Chris had remodeled in his in-laws’ Lake Tapps home. By early 1987 they had acquired not only a kitten, but also their first Newfoundland. Newf, although not an ideal representation of the standard, was incredibly intelligent and he was the beginning of their adventures in the sport of pure-bred dogs. His addition to their lives introduced the Lydens to people who are still their friends today, as well as memberships with the Newfoundland Club of America and the Newfoundland Club of Seattle. 1988 brought the purchase of their first house in Kent and the addition of their first show dog, a beautiful bitch called Nakiska. In August of 1990, Chris and Ingrid welcomed their first home-bred litter and chose Nakiska as their kennel prefix. Over the last 33 years Newfoundlands, and activities with them, have filled the majority of the Lyden’s lives. In late 1993, Chris and Ingrid moved to their home on acreage in Auburn and have typically had 6-10 Newfoundlands with them since. Starting in 2001, one or more Portuguese Water Dogs have also resided with them at Chris’s request. Throughout the years they traveled the country, often in their motorhome, to attend shows and events, making friends with fellow fanciers from all over the world. Chris was an excellent puppy sitter when litters were here and when asked, confessed that his most treasured dog memories were of our dogs Solo and Desi. Newfoundlands bred and owned by the Lydens have had tremendous success in both the show ring and the working arenas and the Nakiska prefix is often seen in pedigrees around the world. Chris had mentioned that since he didn’t have children, he hoped that the Nakiska dogs could leave a lasting legacy as time goes on.

Chris enjoyed being involved in the coordination of dog events and chaired many working (e.g., water rescue, cart pulling) events before getting extensively involved in putting on dog shows. Over the years Chris served as cluster coordinator for the Western WA shows in Puyallup, show chair for several Mt. Rainier Working Dog Club shows, co-show chair for the amazing 2017 Newfoundland Club of America (NCA) National Specialty show in Salishan, OR, grounds chair for multiple other NCA National Specialties, and more recently, show chair for several Olympic Kennel Club (OKC) Dog Shows. When Chris took on a chair position, he threw himself into all aspects of the event and, it has to be said, wasn’t always patient with his teammates. Chris’s brain was usually two steps ahead and he was constantly striving to improve each event and to make it special and unique for the exhibitors and participants. Whether it was music streaming on the grounds, food for all, outdoor movie nights, or unique sponsorships, Chris found ways to put his stamp on the event. At the time of his death Chris was show chair for the 2023 OKC shows, on the board of OKC, on the National Specialty Committee of the NCA, co-chair of the upcoming 2024 NCA National Specialty, and a member of the Newfoundland Club of Seattle, Pacific Northwest Newfoundland Club, and Mt. Rainier Working Dog Club. His leadership and expertise will be deeply missed.

Chris traveled extensively, both for work and pleasure. In addition to visiting almost all fifty states, Chris truly saw the world. Some of the locations he went to included: China, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, Iceland, Poland, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, England, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Croatia, Japan, Hong Kong, Greenland, Korea, and Switzerland. Chris delighted in trying the local cuisine and getting to know the people who lived in the various countries. He had a great ear for accents, and whether at home or abroad, loved asking people where they were from and then engaging with them about their lives. Chris liked to learn enough of a language to be able to ask for things without having to resort to English. His work with the Russian vessels in the 1990’s gave him a strong grasp of the Russian language and he continued to use it regularly. When asked recently, Chris confided that his favorite trips were those he and Ingrid took to Africa. In Africa Chris savored the evening “sundowners” and unparalleled star-gazing. He thrilled at photographing the “Big Five” (Black Rhino, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Cape Buffalo) all in a single day and of being surrounded by over 300 elephants at one time two days in a row. He got to witness cheetahs making a kill more than once, as well as seeing them gather on our safari rig to play with the windshield wipers. Chris loved the descriptions and stories of the animals and land. He was intrigued by the skill of our crew who crafted gourmet meals and homemade bread every day using a metal trunk as their oven, a wood fire for heating everything, and napkins pressed into new designs each meal with a coal-heated iron for the creases. Chris befriended the crew and remained in close contact with some of them until his passing.

Although Chris was passionate about his life with Ingrid and the dogs and his career, his true happy place was on the water with a fishing pole in his hand. His favorite fish to catch were steelhead and he was thrilled to enjoy his river boat the last few years. However, he would fish for almost anything, catching huge salmon (largest was 56 pounds), halibut, bass, and anything else that came to his line. He could easily identify whatever species it was and liked naming it quicker than anyone else. Besides river fishing, Chris had recently enjoyed fishing adventures in Neah Bay and Good Hope, Canada. Although Chris had excelled at traditional sports as a young man, he was not a traditional sports fan and far preferred participating in activities to watching games. He was a talented skeet shooter and enjoyed regularly going to local ranges. When his chemotherapy port was placed he made sure it was put where the butt of his gun wouldn’t hit it. Chris bowled in several leagues over the years and had a best score of 299! Likely from his childhood experiences with his family, Chris loved digging clams, crabbing, shucking oysters, going shrimping and doing anything else on the water. Like his father, Chris was also a talented mechanic and kept all the vehicles and machinery running without repairmen being part of the household equation. He was also quick to lend a hand to his friends when help was needed. Chris was a talented photographer and the photos from our Africa travels are proof positive. He also had great skill with photoshop and had enjoyed discussing photography with friends and family. However, most people haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy his gorgeous photos due to his disdain for social media! Chris believed in living your life in person, not online. During the Covid shutdown, Chris took on a new passion of designing and building planter beds and pots and then planting flowers of all types. He loved the bright colors of the dahlias and salvia. Chris enjoyed watching the birds and butterflies that visited the flowers, particularly the red, orange, and purple hued ones. He liked discussing his plants and trees with friends and had added a greenhouse to our home in the fall of 2022 to preserve his favorite ones in anticipation of this summer.

One of Chris’ best skills was his cooking. Nobody could prepare a seafood meal the way he could! As with many things Chris did, he was self-taught when it came to food and enjoyed creating his own recipes and tweaking others. He liked asking other chef friends for advice and then utilizing their ideas in his own way. Dinner parties were a regular part of Chris and Ingrid’s lives. He was a master on the grill, but also in the kitchen. Thanksgiving and Christmas Day dinners were standard at the Lyden home as he liked the meat prepared a certain way and even would incorporate the PFS pure protein process into the turkey. Especially over the last five years, if home, Chris and Ingrid treasured sharing homemade breakfasts together. One of the best parts of dog shows over the years was the meals prepared and shared at the motorhome. Although Chris may have been better known for creating his vodka slushies on hot days and generously filling the glasses of those around him.

Chris loved spending time with his family and friends. His biological family wasn’t large, but he considered many of his close friends his family as well. Chris kept in touch with his Westport cousins and treasured their childhood memories. His parents always welcomed others into their homes and lives, and Chris had continued this tradition by embracing people from all walks of life. Chris was well known for the magnificent back rubs he gave; his strong thumbs massaged the neck and shoulders of many a loved one! Chris and Ingrid added a foster son to their lives in 2007 and Chris enjoyed teaching Tim about food and cars and hard work during the three years they shared. Chris loved hearing about the lives of his nieces and nephews and was excited for the upcoming life events they were planning.

Chris will be deeply missed by all his family and friends. He is survived by his wife, Ingrid, and dogs (Journey, Trixie, Carlotta, Safari, Nya, Mrembo, Desi, Landin, Zale, Zoe, and Baby J), his sisters and brothers-in-law Lynn Krog, Eric and Jo Nussle, Karin and Andrew Buchholz, nephews and nieces Tor and Kara Krog, Kiersten Krog and Brendan Dugan, Dalton Alvey, Ashley Buchholz and Nate Moore, and Brooke Buchholz (god-daughter) and Nate Greene, cousins Debbie Bowhay, Donna Powers, Teresa, Tim and McKenze, Charles Jr. (Bubba) Lyden, Punkin Champion, and David Lyden.

Remembrances can be made to:
K9s for Warriors https://k9sforwarriors.org/
Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation https://cholangiocarcinoma.org/
Or a charity of your choice

Please wear colorful clothing to Chris' Celebration of Life!