Ferndale High School graduate and long-time businessman in downtown Ferndale, Lou Arestad, passed away Sunday, January 24th, after being hospitalized for heart issues. He was 53.
Arestad, according to the biography on his business website, was an orphan “barely surviving during the Vietnam War in the jungles of Vietnam.” Arestad was cared for by members of the US Army in South Vietnam. As he was preparing to evacuate Vietnam, he was refused permission to board the plane due to not having received the necessary vaccinations for the overseas flight. Later he learned that flight had crashed with no survivors. Arestad was later able to get the necessary vaccinations and left Vietnam soon after on one of the last airlifts.
Upon arriving in the states, he was adopted by a Ferndale dairy family, graduated from Ferndale High School in 1984 and went on to graduate from college. Arestad worked in banking and then started an accounting business, Lou Arestad Accounting, in 1988. Eight years later, he added a construction business, Little Lou’s Construction.
Arestad established the Lou Arestad Charitable Foundation (LACF). According to his website, LACF was set up “in tribute to those amazing soldiers” that “became my band of brothers.” LACF was funded by Lou Arestad Accounting, Little Lou’s Construction, and Arestad’s friends and family. Over the years it provided funding to Blue Skies for Children, the Soldiers Angel Program, the WomenCare shelter in Bellingham and the Bellingham Food Bank.