Focus: Naselle man preserves Finnish arts and cultures close to home

Photos and story

By Diana Zimmerman

Naselle native Wilho Saari is on his second life.

He was born at home 84 years ago just down the street from where he lives now, a fact that some of his former students at the Naselle Youth Camp just couldn’t comprehend.

“But there is no hospital,” they would exclaim.

“I know! I wasn’t sick,” he’d reply. His distinctive sense of humor would surface more than once during the interview on Saturday.

This son of two Finnish immigrants would graduate from high school in 1950 and spend two years milking cows on their little dairy farm before venturing off to college, a feat that no one else in his high school class of 18 would do before or after him.

“I’m so glad I went,” Saari said. He attended what was then the Bethany Bible Institute in Santa Cruz, CA before transferring to Northwest College, now Northwest University, in Kirkland, WA. After four years, he went to Seattle Pacific University to get his teaching credentials.

It was during those years of higher learning that he returned home at Christmas and met Kaisa while caroling with a group.

Kaisa’s nanny had moved to Naselle from Finland after WWII had ended. She invited the young woman to visit her in southwest Washington after Kaisa graduated from high school.

The Christmas holidays were soon over and Saari returned to Seattle to continue his studies.

“I should write a letter to that Finland girl,” he thought to himself one day. “So I wrote to her and she replied.”

“I wrote to her. She replied,” he said again. “I didn’t even have a car back in those days. Our communication was basically by mail.”

That was in April,” he grinned. “We got engaged in May, married in June and got separated in July.”

Kaisa giggled. Saari’s wife of more than 50 years is charming. And still charmed.

Their separation was temporary. There was the matter of a visa and Kaisa wanted to say goodbye to her friends and family.

In August, Saari got three letters in the mail. One said that Kaisa had passed her physical and therefore could be married. Which was great, because they already were.

The second said that Saari could begin student teaching. The third let him know that he would not be needed for military service. He was 4-F.

To this day, he doesn’t know why he got that designation. He’s a little curious but not enough to do anything about it.

Saari finished school and taught for a year or two in Brooklyn, Washington before the two moved to Seattle so Kaisa could go to school.

While at Seattle Pacific University, one of Kaisa’s teachers encouraged her to get a masters degree and return to the school to work as his assistant.

The couple went to Finland for a month that summer and when they returned, she registered for classes at the University of Washington. She earned a master’s degree in Spanish.

Saari got an offer to teach at a mission school in Liberia, so he, Kaisa, and their two kids, Karen and Riki, moved to Western Africa, where they would spend three years.

They laughed at the memory of their daughter who was disappointed to be a kindergartner when they returned to the US and Naselle. She’d “babysat” some of the kids in the third grade class in Africa. Surely, she should be in third grade!

Saari taught at the youth camp for 23 years and Kaisa taught Spanish German and Finnish at the high school.

They’ve been in their house since August 1, 1970, according to Saari. 46 years.

Their two kids are teachers and have three kids each.

“Kelsey, Karli, Kirsten, Kenny, Kyle and Katie,” Saari rattled their names off.

“You remembered them,” Kaisa teased.

“They all start with a K!” Saari said. “They were all in college last year. Pricey!”

When Saari was 50, he took up a traditional Finnish instrument and changed his life.

The instrument, a kantele, has 36 strings and is played with both hands.

Saari is a fifth generation kantele player and can draw his lineage back to a Finnish folk heroine named Kreeta Haapasalo who performed on the kantele in the 19th century to provide for her 11 children. Haapasalo was Saari’s great great grandmother.

There is a statue of her in Finland and Saari likes to have his picture taken with it. Haapasalo was also honored on a postage stamp. He is proud of her and she would be proud of him now.

Saari won a National Endowment of the Arts award for it in 2006. That is a big deal.

Awards are hung all over the walls of his living room.

“Too many,” he said.

He’s proud of the NEA award, but loves his Sauna Bucket award from the Finnish-American Historical Society of the West even more.

“Sauna bucket!” he laughed.

He remembers his father playing traditional Finnish tunes on the instrument when he was young. Saari played the trumpet, the bass horn and the piano when he was in grade school and high school, but he never tried the kantele until he was in his sixth decade.

“Every night after work it seemed like,” Saari said of his dad, “he would sit down and play it. It was fourteen years after he died when I started. I knew how he played it and it was easy to pick up.”

Saari started performing in churches, at Finnish events, and more. Soon he was crisscrossing the United States to play for people. He was teaching several people to play the instrument in Portland when a man in Finland wrote a kantele mass for his group.

They traveled to Finland to perform the mass for several churches.

All this happened after he turned 50.

He’s become a prolific composer for the instrument. He estimates that he has written a total of 4,000-5,000 pieces. 170 just this year. Books of his original compositions line the wall of his study, where he keeps the kantele. He’ll shut the door sometimes so Kaisa can watch TV in the next room.

Where did he get his love of music?

Saari believes it is growing up hearing good music and good musicians. His sister was a pianist, and there was an evangelist who would come to Naselle once in a while to perform.”

Kaisa has a different answer.

“Kreeta Haapasalo,” she teased him.

What else do you like to do for fun?

“He likes to play the kantele,” Kaisa joked.

Saari nodded.

He has two recordings and is planning to record a Christmas album. A woman in Finland published a book with 365 of his compositions.

“I’ve had so much fun with the kantele,” Saari said, “I wish I’d started as a kid.”

Saari will be performing this summer at the Finnish American Folk Fest in Naselle, during the last weekend in July.