Vern Fonk

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Vern Fonk (ca. 1931–22 May 2006) was a Seattle entrepreneur best known for founding Vern Fonk Insurance, a high-risk auto insurance agency with offices in Washington and Oregon.

Vern Fonk Insurance is locally famous for its humorous and often off-color television commercials, which generally appear on local late night television and have run since 1994. The commercials, which typically parody movies and TV shows as well as other Northwest personalities, are usually written by and star Rob Thielke, manager of the Fonk agency office in Everett. Due to Thielke’s prominence in the ads, he is commonly believed to be Fonk himself. The company’s slogan, “Remember to honk when you drive by Vern Fonk,” ends each commercial.

Vern Fonk died of a blood infection in 2006. Vern Fonk Insurance has been owned by his son-in-law and daughter, Kevin and Rene Mulvaney, since Fonk’s retirement in 1995.

[edit] References

• Vern Fonk Insurance (official site)
• By night he’s a wacko in TV ads, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 3 August 2006
• Remember to Honk when you drive by..., Seattlest, 11 November 2005
• Vern Fonk’s insurance ads became an icon in Seattle (Vern Fonk obituary), Seattle Times, 9 June 2006