George Murphy was born Oct. 10, 1929, in Worchester, Massachusetts. He first visited Alaska in 1959 while working for an oil exploration crew on Becharof Lake, located below King Salmon. Murphy helped legends like the Ball Brothers ship a generator to the job site. After earning money for the summer, Murphy returned to Montana to attend college.
Murphy took his first flying lesson while living in Montana in 1963 but quickly ran out of money. He decided it was time to find work in Alaska so in 1965 Murphy moved to Alaska permanently, first living in Kodiak, working as an engineer for a local contractor. Murphy spent the first year settling in and then bought an Aeronca Sedan, the same airplane he flies today. He didn't have a pilot's license, so a friend helped him fly the aircraft from Palmer to Kodiak.
In his free time Murphy earned his student pilot's license in the Aeronca Sedan and flew all over Kodiak on wheels. Murphy met Dorothea, a local schoolteacher, when he was in Port Lyons to check out a new airstrip. They continued a relationship for many years and then in 1972 were in the same community for an extended period of time and were married.
Operating under his student certificate, Murphy worked for three more years for the contractor in Kodiak, often making flights in the Sedan to Anchorage and Fairbanks. He was determined to take the pilot's license check ride, and rented a Cessna 150 fully equipped with instruments, including a VOR. Murphy completed the obligatory half-hour VOR instruction and took his check ride. He completed each task perfectly except the VOR, and was required to take another half-hour lesson with an instructor. The next time he passed and -- with more than 180 hours total time -- he received his private pilot's license in 1967.
The next year, Murphy rented a Cessna 150 with instruments to get his commercial license. He completed that goal and went on to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Southeast Alaska villages and Tyonek, where he built roads and sidewalks.
Keeping survey stakes in the ground proved to be a difficult task in Tyonek. The community youth were pulling out the stakes as quickly as he put them in the ground; they had discovered a new favorite pastime. As you can imagine, the sidewalks were also pretty popular.
Bringing needed airports to communities
As Murphy's BIA projects were winding down, he applied for work with the Division of Aviation within the Alaska Department of Public Works. He was hired immediately and his duties required travel to villages and select sites. Airports were proposed in these locations to serve communities where there were none. Murphy was tasked to design all of the needed improvements and supervise the construction.
"Some communities had airports built in the 1930s but the runways needed to be extended to accommodate larger modern aircraft," he remembers. "Other communities had been using beaches or mudholes and required adequate facilities for commercial traffic."
Murphy's first project was in Klawock, in Southeast Alaska. It proved to be one of his most difficult. In 1969 Murphy was sent to locate a site suitable for construction of the new airport, survey the property boundaries, and propose runway alignment cross sections. There were no roads and Murphy and his small crew often traveled by boat. When traveling by foot, maneuvering around the huge trees hindered their ability to view the entire area, making it difficult to select a suitable airport location. Years prior, there had been a hurricane just outside Klawock and the strong winds blew down a lot of trees.
"Often we would set the transit on the downed trees," he said, but even with an elevation boost on downed trees, it still wasn't enough. Murphy decided the only way they were going to find a suitable airport site was through aerial reconnaissance. "I decided to go back to Ketchikan and hire a PA-12 on floats and directed the survey crew to watch for me. When they saw the airplane begin to circle, they were to set up the transit and shoot that location." And so they did and with that shot, the basis for the centerline survey of the proposed Klawock Airport was established. At that time there was no Global Positioning System (GPS) or Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM) equipment. Measurements were completed by survey chain with cross sections surveyed using a level.
When Murphy returned to the office, he was determined to utilize state-of-the-art equipment to plot the proposed Klawock Airport cross sections, and calculate fills and cuts by employing the state's new computer system. The old McKay Building in downtown Anchorage had a basement dedicated solely to storage of the computer. To use the computer for the cross sections' calculations and plotting, one had to put the survey data on a form. The secretary would, in turn, transfer that information from the form to a computer card. One minor typing mistake would create "reams of paper everywhere."
Murphy spent hours looking for errors, correcting the information and resending the stack of cards through the computer. "It's the reason I don't like computers today," he laughs. Needless to say, the Klawock Airport was built -- by a pilot for pilots.
The Umiat adventure
Later that same year, Murphy was asked to go in the fall up to the Colville where the Navy had constructed an airstrip at Umiat. The airstrip had been transferred from the Navy to the State of Alaska and Murphy was asked to survey the airport boundary and obtain general cross-section information for the runway. Murphy had been working north of the Yukon on small projects in Beaver and Stevens Village, so he decided to fly up in his own airplane. The Division of Aviation had promised to provide two helpers for Murphy to obtain the necessary information, and they would travel via commercial flights to Umiat.
On his way to Umiat, Murphy landed at Bettles and fueled the aircraft. When it was time to take off for Umiat, he discovered his battery was dead and he had to hand prop his airplane to get it started. Murphy remembers, "I glanced up at the Flight Service Station attendant only to witness him shaking his head as if he had seen this potential calamitous scene before. I started my Sedan, hopped in and waved good bye as I taxied off to Umiat!"
Just prior to dark, Murphy reached Umiat and felt "Darn lucky to find the airport as my only means of navigation was a compass and the chart." The Airport Manager promptly came out and, apparently, had been stationed in Umiat longer than anticipated.
"He was pretty bushy," Murphy recalls. "He told me there was no place to stay unless I was interested in the 'Playboy' club. I was okay with that, as long as it was shelter. Once inside, I saw that the décor suited its name. But it was equipped with a propane stove and that was all I really cared about."
There were other buildings at Umiat including the Wien Station Office and Interior Air, which later became Mark Air.
The next day Murphy moseyed over to the Wien Station and loitered waiting for his crew to show up. He had no telephone and no way to learn the status of the crew. After waiting a few days, Murphy finally was able to make a call to Anchorage from the Wien Station. The Wien agent had an HF radio that worked only when the airwaves didn't have interference in the area -- which was rare. The crew hadn't been able fly into Umiat due to the weather. Anchorage staffers asked Murphy to wait and he did, taking advantage of the opportunity to go moose hunting while he waited.
He was able to get a moose. Gas was plentiful, according to the Wien agent, who directed him to pallets of sealed five-gallon cans of gas abandoned by the recent oil exploration crews. The Wien agent was interested in finding a moose for himself, and Murphy was willing to accommodate him, so off they went. The Agent quickly shot a moose and Murphy hauled them both back to camp in a couple of trips.
Then, the agent asked Murphy to take him out caribou hunting. "At the time, there were miles and miles of caribou, as far as you could see," Murphy remembers.
It was early October and still no sign of the crew. The pothole lakes were freezing over, so Murphy landed on one of the frozen lakes. The agent climbed out of the plane and shot a caribou. When the agent's foot hit the lake ice, the ice flexed. Murphy got out, grabbed his ax and chopped a hole to measure the ice thickness. He discovered they had two inches and encouraged the Wien agent to "work fast."
Meanwhile, the crew had quite an adventure trying to get into Umiat. First they attempted to charter directly from Fairbanks but were weathered out of Umiat. Next they took the jet to Barrow and tried to charter into Umiat but had to turn around due to weather and returned to Fairbanks. The next plan was to wait for the Wien flight. Finally they made it to Umiat ten days after Murphy and the Agent got the caribou. The crew completed their assignment without incident.
Challenges of rural Alaska
Murphy traveled extensively in Alaska and was well liked by everyone he met. He was once stationed in King Salmon and tasked to build a crosswind runway at Naknek with a budget of $20,000. That funding level would only accommodate a force account or "local" labor crew, paid at prevailing local wages. Murphy assembled a crew and attempted to locate equipment. The local contractor felt the project should have been put out to bid, so declared his trucks were "inoperable." As usual, Murphy found a way to get the job done. He worked a deal with the King Salmon Airport Manager and secured all the equipment required. At the end of the project, however, it turned out $20,000 just wasn't enough to complete the project as designed. Another $10,000 was infused, the crosswind runway was completed, and everyone got paid.
Murphy enjoyed Naknek and returned often. Once while working in Iliamna, Murphy's sedan was on floats and he flew into a pothole lake by South Naknek. They stayed a while and as the weather began to close in they hopped in and started the airplane but, as Murphy remembers, "It just didn't want to go anywhere. To get off the beach, I had to add power, and more power. Finally we broke loose. After landing back in Iliamna I discovered an alder bush was still tied to my tail."
Murphy continued to be tasked with locating good airport sites across Alaska. This was difficult in the Kuskokwim region, as runways were often positioned between pothole lakes. Murphy would find a location, survey it and then begin the site preparation process. The contractor would return to the site after freeze up to excavate and stockpile silt material from the sides of the proposed airstrip location. The silt material would remain stockpiled for up to two years to allow the frozen silt to thaw and drain. Over the next few years the airstrip would be constructed with the stockpiled silt material. "A few years later, the process changed a bit when the state had oil money and barged gravel from ten miles up the Kuskokwim River
The State of Alaska created the Alaska Department of Transportation while the pipeline was constructed from the North Slope. Murphy continued in his same position, with the same purpose, but now he was extending runways rather than building new ones.
Murphy retired from the State of Alaska in 1989 and in 1990 created a Part 135 Operation, Alaska Bush Expeditions. From 1991 to 2010, Murphy flew his own clients, volunteered as a pilot in the Iditarod Air Force, and served other outfits, including a local river guide operating on the Alaska Peninsula.
Murphy has flown with the Iditarod Air Force every year between 1981 and 2010, hauling supplies, dogs, the media and clients. One year he was the designated Chief Pilot for the Iditarod Air Force. During the Iditarod you have to be able to land on rivers, lakes, in the snow, and other off-field locations on unprepared surfaces. Murphy did it all, and was known for being the first volunteer pilot on the job, and the last to leave, staying to complete all the "unglamorous" tasks when the fanfare had passed and others quickly drifted away. As a Part 135 operator, he flew clients and the media from Anchorage to Nome on numerous occasions.
Today, Murphy remains the Chief Pilot for the Junior Iditarod, which was formed in 1987 by a group of young mushers ineligible for the Iditarod. Today, the race spans two days, beginning at Knik Lake and ending at the Willow Community Center.
Life is good
As a Part 135 Air Taxi, Murphy once transported clients to float the Kongakut River. The river flows through the Brooks Range and ultimately discharges north into the ocean. Dorothea went along on the float trip with the clients and George flew from Fort Yukon periodically to check on them.
Meanwhile, Murphy also flew for a local charter operator, and happened to meet the School District Superintendent. Murphy informed her that Dorothea was a retired school teacher and had worked in many areas of the state during her career. The School District actually wanted to hire a mentor. While Dorothea enjoyed a float trip, Murphy secured her a new job working in Beaver and Rampart.
Dorothea took the position, and Murphy continued to fly hunters to the Brooks Range out of Ft. Yukon and loved every minute of it. In addition, Murphy was able to fly to Beaver and Rampart to check on Dorothea. Life was good!
Murphy often flew aircraft for a guide to and from a lodge on the peninsula between Cold Bay and Nelson Lagoon. The guide would take three aircraft -- a Super Cub, Cessna 206 and a Maule -- down to his lodge, then do all of the flying as a single-pilot operation. The guide only hired pilots to ferry his airplanes down to the lodge and then back to his base in Willow. Murphy recalls the first time he flew the Maule.
"Once I was in the Maule, the guide showed me how to start it," he says. "I was amazed at how well it flew and how STOL (short takeoff and landing) the aircraft performed. I remember my first landing in the Maule. I stopped at Lake Hood to pick up the camp cook and sure wasn't very happy with my first attempt to land the Maule. I soon became accustomed to it and all went well."
Flying for work, Part-135, and volunteering for the Iditarod Air Force just wasn't enough flying for Murphy. He and Dorothea also had cabins and property scattered about the state. When it was snowing and everyone was plowing out their driveways, Murphy was often seen taking off to shovel the roofs on their cabins. These two still have remote cabins on Kodiak Island, Hiline Lake, Crosswind Lake, and Sucker Lake.
For those of us who know George and Dorothea, we know there isn't much that hasn't happened to these two. They survived a bear eating part of their airplane in Kodiak, requiring both to spend a day sewing the aircraft fabric back together using some fishing line and a pail bale made into a needle. Then they overlaid all of the stitching with duct tape and flew home.
Murphy once rescued Dorothea after she crashed her river raft into a haystack in the Hayes River. She was rafting alone and was sucked under the pile of wood debris. All of her gear was gone. She was cold and wet. Dorothea built a makeshift shelter from brush over an impression in the ground. She remained there with no food or supplies for days waiting for the water to lower, or for Murphy to find her.
"When I found her, I would have preferred to charter a helicopter to land at the site, but time was of the essence" he remembers. "I landed safely and extracted her."
After returning from a trip on the McArthur River, Murphy learned he had lost his tail wheel. The tower operator attempted to warn Murphy when he departed but they couldn't understand the communication through the "organ grinder" radio. A few weeks later, Murphy returned to the same location and there sat his tail wheel, where it had emerged from the snow pack as it melted.
George and Dorothea have done it all and they haven't stopped. In 1989 Murphy purchased a little cabin on Long Lake in Willow. He and Dorothea built a larger log home on the property and still live there. Murphy wanted to use the neighborhood airstrip but lived outside the subdivision that owned it. He parked there anyway, became the airport association president, helped to change the bylaws and then raised the dues to pay for airport improvements. Today the airstrip is grass and both aviation and non-aviation homeowners appreciate the value the airstrip has brought to the community. Only George Murphy could accomplish such as task!
For more on Murphy and other Alaska aviation legends, consider attending a banquet, to be held in their honor on Nov. 1. For more information, check out the Alaska Air Carriers Association website.