Dan Cuddy, longtime head of First National Bank Alaska, dies at 94

Dan Cuddy, who presided over First National Bank Alaska for more than six decades, died Tuesday in Anchorage, according to bank officials. He was 94.

Cuddy's conservative approach to lending was widely credited for ensuring its survival through a disastrous recession in the late 1980s, when about a dozen banks and credit unions in the state collapsed.

As other Anchorage banks rode the real estate boom to record levels of asset growth, Cuddy stayed the course, growing less than 15 percent between 1983 and 1985, the Anchorage Daily News reported in 1986.

Bill Popp of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. called Cuddy "one of the great leaders that helped build Alaska."

"He had a strong conservative hand at the helm of his bank, but at the same time he had a willingness to invest in the community," Popp said.

In large part because of Cuddy's influence, First National is a rare case of a territorial-era Alaska bank that's still intact.

"He was a no-nonsense man and obviously a very successful banker," said Bob Bulmer, president of Alaska Executive Search, who knew Cuddy for more than 35 years.

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Cuddy witnessed and played prominent roles in the milestone events that shaped the state.

A few months after the 1964 earthquake devastated much of downtown Anchorage, Cuddy had the bank's new headquarters built there to show that the city was rebounding from the disaster. The bank later moved its headquarters to Midtown.

The bank helped transact the Prudhoe Bay oil lease sale on Sept. 10, 1969, when the state of Alaska netted $900 million.

Cuddy was born on Feb. 8, 1921 in Valdez. In 1933 his father, Warren, moved the family to Anchorage and opened a law office. Cuddy delivered newspapers in the territory's largest city and tended the golf course that once sprawled across the site of the Delaney Park Strip.

He attended Anchorage High School and played on the basketball team. At 17 years old, he became a superintendent at a salmon cannery, then moved on to work as a heavy equipment operator at Farewell Lake.

During World War II Cuddy served in England and France, rising from private to captain in the U.S. Army. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was among the troops who helped close down the concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany.

In 1940, the year before the United States entered the war, Cuddy's father, Warren, bought a controlling interest in what was then called First National Bank of Anchorage, which was founded in 1922.

Cuddy was elected to the board in January 1943. After the war ended in 1945, he returned to Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics. He went on to law school at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he met his future wife, Betti Puckett.

Cuddy took over as bank president in 1951 after his father died and held the position for decades. Under his watch, Cuddy grew the bank from $25 million in assets to its current size of over $3 billion, according to a press release from the bank. Most recently, he was chairman of the board. His daughter Betsy Lawer serves as president.

First National Bank Alaska board member Margy Johnson, who is also the executive vice president of Alaska Dispatch News, said that when Cuddy put her on the board 20 years ago, the number of female bank directors in the country was small.

"He truly respected the view that I brought to the bank," she said.

Over the years, Cuddy garnered numerous civic and industry awards. A statewide committee of civic leaders named him Alaskan of the Year in 2002. Four years later, the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce awarded him the William A. Egan Outstanding Alaskan Award.

Beyond banking, his interests included flying and duck hunting.

Cuddy was preceded in death by his parents, Warren and Lucy, his brother, David, his wife, Betti, and his granddaughter, Nikki. He is survived by his six children and their spouses, 14 grandchildren and their spouses, and three great-grandchildren.

Jeannette Lee Falsey

Jeannette Lee Falsey is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. She left the ADN in 2017.

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