PETERSBURG, Alaska - Robert Thorstenson Sr., who played a principal role in founding the company that would become Icicle Seafoods, died Tuesday. He was 77.

Thorstenson had survived Parkinson's disease for more than three decades but died of the effects of a fall related to his illness, his family said.

Icicle Seafoods, now based in Seattle, grew from one plant in Petersburg, Alaska, into processing facilities throughout Alaska plus Washington and Oregon.

He worked as a deckhand on purse seiners and as a tender operator before beginning work in fish processing.

He rose from assistant cannery superintendent in Petersburg to general superintendent of all Alaska operations of Pacific American Fisheries.

When Pacific American decided to sell out in 1956, Thorstenson formed a group of fisherman to purchase the company's Petersburg plant. The company was founded as Petersburg Fisheries, Inc., and eventually was renamed Icicle Seafoods.

Thorstenson was CEO and board chairman from 1965 to 1981 and board chairman from 1982 to 1991. He retired from Icicle in 1990 but remained a board member from 1992 to 2007.

He was chairman of the Petersburg School Board and the Chamber of Commerce. Four presidents appointed him to the International Pacific Fisheries Commission.