He was drafted during World War I, serving in the Washington National Guard, and then overseas serving with the Forty-eighth Coast Artillery Corps for ten months until June 1919 when he was discharged as a captain.
He was employed at the Seattle Title Trust Co., from 1920 to 1930, where he was a manager, director and vice-president of the mortgage division. He subsequently became president of the Seattle Mortgage Loan Co. from 1930 to 1934.