Editor's note: Following is an obituary for Walter Soboleff by his son, Ross.
Dr. Walter Alexander Soboleff, Sr. passed away at age 102 in his own home in Juneau on Sunday May 22, 2011. He was born on Nov. 14, 1908 in Killisnoo to Anna Hunter and Alexander Sasha Soboleff. His paternal grandparents were Fr. Ivan Alexander Soboleff and Olga Leudke Soboleff, and maternal grandparents were Eaton Hunter and Seigeigé.
His Tlingit names included T'aaw Chán and Kaajaakwtí. He belonged to the Raven moiety, L'eineidi clan (dog salmon), Aanx'aakhittaan House (House in the middle of town) in Angoon.
Walter and his sister Ruby spent their early years in Killisnoo, where they spoke English in the home but learned Tlingit from playmates at the school. His paternal grandmother Olga often cared for him as an infant and spoke German to him. Later in college his German language professor told the class his pronunciation and speech was like a native German speaker.
He was placed in the Russian school in Sitka in 1916 but returned to Killisnoo in 1917 when the Russian Revolution forced its closure. His father Sasha, a mechanic, became ill and was hospitalized in Sitka and died of asthma in his early 30s, in August 1920. Walter, Ruby and Anna were unable to survive in Killisnoo without a husband and father, and Walter returned to Sitka where he attended Sheldon Jackson School. He had been in training to become one of the Russian Orthodox Church clergy as a boy, however he said he could not understand the services. When he attended a Presbyterian service at about age 14, he said he could understand the service and he joined the church.
He graduated from Sheldon Jackson High School in 1928. He attended Oregon State Univ. for a term in 1929. He worked around Sitka at jobs including cannery work and commercial fishing, and then won a scholarship in 1933 to attend Dubuque University in Dubuque, Iowa. It was the height of the Depression, and he worked a variety of jobs, and rode the railroads "hobo-style" to and from Iowa his first year. Later he qualified for a railroad clergy-rate and was able to travel in greater comfort.
He stayed at Dubuque for seven years, including his undergraduate work and then graduate school. In 1938, his second year in seminary, he returned to Iowa with his new wife and soulmate Genevieve E. Ross Soboleff, who he married in 1938. He earned his graduate degree in 1939 and they returned to Alaska.
In Juneau he accepted the ministry at Memorial Presbyterian Church. Memorial Church was a ministry founded by a Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, to serve the Native community of Juneau. Dr. Soboleff was the first (and last) Native minister to serve in this church, from 1940 to 1962.
Memorial Church began small, but grew and thrived into a Christ-based church that served the Alaska Native community. He brought together Tlingit and Christian spirituality in a new way that built new levels of tolerance and understanding in the community, and that spoke to people of all races and faiths. He felt his crowning achievement was a church filled with people of all walks of life and from all levels of society.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began broadcasting the church services on KJNO radio to reach fisherman and the large percentage of the Native community that seasonally migrated out of the city to live off the land and sea and put up food for the winter. He also produced the weekly "Tlingit News", a broadcast of news and current events translated into Tlingit.
The Presbyterian Board of National Missions closed Memorial Church abruptly in 1962, and Dr. Soboleff served the church eight more years as itinerant minister to Presbyterian churches throughout Southeast Alaska including Craig, Hydaburg, Klawock, Kake, Angoon, Hoonah, Haines, Klukwan, and Yakutat. He often traveled by boat to these communities on the church vessels Anna Jackman and Princeton Hall.
In 1970 he accepted a teaching position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he served the next four years at the UAF's first Director of Native Studies. His groundbreaking work in university-level Native studies brought Alaska Native elders from around the state into the college classroom to share their knowledge with the students.
Genevieve Soboleff, RN, passed away in 1986. She and Walter were a team, and her love and dedicated support was essential to the extraordinary life and accomplishments of Walter Soboleff.
He joined the Alaska Native Brotherhood and attended his first convention in 1930, the year after the landmark 1929 ANB Convention which passed the first resolution calling on the ANB to pursue the "land suit." This 42-year ANB initiative resulted in the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and the founding of Sealaska Corporation and hundreds of Alaska Native village and regional corporations. He served in all offices of the Grand Camp ANB, including six terms as Grand President. He was named ANB Grand President Emeritus in 1999.
Dr. Soboleff was elected to the Sealaska Board of Directors in 1981 and served until 1989. He served as a Trustee of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation (now Sealaska Heritage Institute), serving as chairman at the time of his death. He also served on the Board of Kootznoowoo, Inc. from 1977-1989, as Chief Executive Officer in 1989, and was Kootznoowoo, Inc. President Emeritus at the time of his death.
Soboleff joined the Alaska National Guard in 1951, and served a full military career in the Guard, retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 1971. He was at a National Guard encampment in Anchorage when the great earthquake hit in March 1964.
Dr. Soboleff spent a lifetime learning about spiritual truth and knowledge. He joined the Mt. Juneau Masonic Lodge No. 147 (currently Mt. Juneau Masonic Gastineau Lodge), and became a 33rd Degree Mason in 1970. He was elevated in the York Rite Shrine Club, and was a Blue Lodge Masonic.
He joined the Juneau Lions Club in 1946 and was a founding member of the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in 1947.
He married Stella Atkinson of Metlakatla in 1997, and the couple was married for a very happy 12 years until she passed away in 2009.
Words do not adequately capture the impact of Dr. Soboleff's life on the Native community, Alaska and the world. Though a master wordsmith with an extraordinary ability to speak simply and clearly about complex spiritual and intellectual concepts, it is his work with people that is his legacy. When he addressed the graduating class of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007, he closed with Micah 6:8: "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
He was preceded in death by his sisters Ruby (Larry) Jackson and Martha Bradley, and wife Genevieve E. Ross Soboleff, and wife Stella Buxton Atkinson Soboleff. He is survived by his daughter Janet (Ted) Burke, sons Sasha, Walter, Jr. and Ross (Jane Lindsey) Soboleff; step daughter Priscilla (Ed) Peele; step son Thomas L. Atkinson, Jr.; grandchildren Dorene (Jim) Mulholland, Deborah (Tom) Downs, Christopher (Monica) Burke, Leanna (David) Morley, Alex Soboleff, Etienne Soboleff, Maynard M. Soboleff, Sasha I. Soboleff, Jr., Stephen Soboleff, Henrietta Soboleff, Stephen Patrick Soboleff, Jacob Soboleff, Nathan (Angie Wright) Soboleff, Madeline (Trini Contreras) Soboleff Levy, Ruby Soboleff, Thomas Mills, Jr., Lydia E. Mills, Amanda Peele, and Edward Peele, Jr. ; 13 great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. During his lifetime, Walter and Genevieve Soboleff took in many people to their home[--]many of these individuals are family as well.
A Grand Camp ANB and ANS service will be held on Saturday, May 28, at 2 p.m. at Centennial Hall in Juneau. A public memorial service will follow this service at Centennial Hall starting at 3:30 pm. A funeral service is set for Monday, May 30, at 3 p.m. at Northern Light United Churc.h in Juneau. Final interment will be on Wednesday, June 1, at Alaska Memorial Park Mortuary and Crematory, 3839 Riverside Drive, Juneau, TBA.
Pallbearers will be the family grandsons Christopher Burke, Albert Kookesh III, Walter Woods Kookesh, Thomas Mills, Jr., Jacob Soboleff, Nathan Soboleff, Stephen Soboleff, and Alexander Soboleff. Honorary pallbearers will be Gary Waid, Byron Mallott, John Moeller, Joe Nelson, Gordon Chew, Rep. Bill Thomas, John Sandor, Steve Brandner, Bill Martin, Mike Kirk, Ray Riutta, Dennis Harris, Lee Harris and Steve Quinn.
A memorial account has been set up at Wells Fargo bank for persons wishing to make memorial contributions: account No. 1508372552. A memorial page on Facebook "Dr Walter Soboleff Memorial Page' is available for anyone wishing to post remembrances.
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