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| 28th
year of Alaska's great race
|
| 01/01/00 STATE LOSES NOTABLE FIGURES MUSHERS REDINGTON, NOLLNER AMONG ALASKANS TO DIE IN 1999 The Associated Press Iditarod founder Joe Redington Sr. and Edgar Nollner, the last survivor of the serum run that inspired the famed sled dog race, were among Alaskans who passed away in 1999. Other prominent Alaskans who died this year included Bill Bishop, the geologist who found the state's first commercial oil field; Roger Connor, a former Alaska Supreme Court justice; Harold Gillam, a former mayor of Fairbanks; and Burton Rexford, longtime head of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. Redington, a homesteader from Knik, was the chief organizer of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in its early days. He died of esophageal cancer in June at age 82. His devotion to mushing ran so deep that he was buried in the basket of a sled. While Redington didn't run the first Iditarod in 1973, he entered every year but one from 1974 until 1992. His best finish was fifth, which he accomplished four times. In January 1925, as a 20-year-old, Nollner mushed 24 miles along the Yukon River with the diphtheria serum desperately awaited in Nome, where an epidemic had broken out. He died of heart failure in January in his home village of Galena at age 94. Nollner was a trapper, fisherman, barge pilot and woodcutter who fathered 23 children by two wives. In a 1995 interview with The Associated Press, Nollner said he never dreamed his mushing exploits would make him famous. ''I just wanted to help, that's all,'' he said. Bishop became a legendary figure in Alaska's oil patch in 1957, when he dug his boot heel into the ground near Kenai and said, ''Drill here.'' The drill bit hit the Swanson River field, which gave Alaska its beginnings as an oil province and contributed to Congress' approving statehood. Bishop, who lived in Wasilla, died of complications from pneumonia in February at 79. The boots he wore on the fateful day have been bronzed and are on display at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Connor, who served in the Supreme Court from 1968 to 1983, died of cancer at age 73 in Richmond, Va. He was raised in Juneau and was U.S. attorney in Juneau during territorial days. Later as a private attorney, he represented Aleuts before the Indian Claims Commission in Washington. Gillam served as mayor of Fairbanks city and as Fairbanks North Star Borough chairman, a forerunner to the borough mayor position. He died of a heart attack in May at 68. Gillam tried several times without success for a seat in the state Legislature. After leaving office in 1995, he remained a fixture at Fairbanks public meetings as an advocate of smaller government. Rexford, who led the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission for most of this decade, died of lung cancer in Barrow in March. He was 69. Rexford was a longtime whaling captain who held a seat on the whaling commission for 15 years. He was chairman from 1990 to 1998. He also served on the North Slope Borough Assembly. Among the other Alaskans and former Alaskans who died in 1999: * Cyrus Peck Sr., 92, of Juneau. Peck was an Alaska Native leader who was a longtime grand secretary for the Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand Camp. * John Hope, 76, of Juneau. Hope was known as a historian and a Tlingit leader with a gift for political strategy. * Matthew Fred Sr., 75, of Angoon. Fred was a local leader and part of a delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C., to try to persuade the Navy to apologize for bombing Angoon in 1882. * Charles Keim, 77, of Fox Island, Wash. A former dean of journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Keim wrote seven books about Alaska and Alaska Natives. * Bob Henning, 83, of Angoon and Edmonds, Wash. Henning grew up in Juneau and owned Alaska magazine for nearly 30 years. * Charlie Elder, 78, of Anchorage. Elder oversaw design and construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. * Boyd Brown, 68, of California. Brown, a longtime oil field worker, led a train of bulldozers that moved the first heavy equipment to the North Slope to help with oil development. * The Rev. David A. Melbourne, 96, of Anchorage. Melbourne served at parishes throughout Alaska during 60 years as a Roman Catholic priest. * Steve Garvey, 40, of Anchorage. A pioneering Alaska rock and ice climber, Garvey was killed in a 100-foot fall near Portage Glacier. |
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Anchorage Daily News