Jay Hammond, shown near his Lake Clark home June 5, 1985, was a bush pilot and hunting guide who served two terms as Alaska's governor and helped create the Alaska Permanent Fund. Hammond died Monday night at home. He was 83.
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Former governor who got oil flowing dies in sleep at 83
Published: August 3, 2005
Last Modified: August 20, 2005 at 09:35 AM
Gov. Jay Hammond, a self-described "Bush Rat" who steered the young state of Alaska through turbulent years of growth and environmental preservation, died in his sleep at his Lake Clark home Monday night. He was 83.
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Hammond stepped away from public office in 1982, but never from public life. His handshake grew a little weaker as decades mounted, but the force and energy of the fit, rugged Hammond striding through an airport or into a conference room, usually in a beret, jeans and a wool or plaid flannel shirt, never seemed to wane.
Word of his death raced across the state Tuesday.
"He was kind of a larger than life, quintessential Alaskan," said Fred Dyson, a Republican state senator from Eagle River. "He was a war hero, a man of great personal Christian faith, really a physical stud ... He done it all. He fished, he hunted and lived in the Bush ...
"It was my impression he never sought political office for any kind of self-aggrandizement."
Gov. Frank Murkowski noted his passing at an afternoon press conference.
"I guess we can all conclude we've lost a giant in the sense of the contribution he made to our state," Murkowski said. "He was a philosopher, a guide, a pilot, a poet, a visionary. ... His contribution is evident when every Alaskan receives a Permanent Fund dividend."
Hammond may be best known to current Alaskans as one of the architects and the fiercest champion of the Permanent Fund and the dividend program that distributes checks to residents each October. But his tracks criss-cross the modern landmarks of Alaska history, from the pipeline, to subsistence hunting, to oil taxes.
Born in 1922 in New York state, Hammond was the son of a Methodist minister. He was a Marine fighter pilot in the South Pacific during World War II. After his discharge, he paid $4,000 for an amphibious plane and headed for Alaska, where he worked for a time as a trapper, hunter and guide -- he was once said to have taken 250 wolves in one season -- and later for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He married Bella Gardiner in 1952. The couple homesteaded at Lake Clark in 1956 and had two daughters, Heidi and Dana.
In an interview Tuesday morning, Bella Hammond said her husband suffered from a number of ailments but that Monday had been a normal day for him. The former governor had been up and working at home.
"He just went to sleep and didn't get up this morning," she said.
Hammond was first elected to the state Legislature in 1959, running as an independent. Former state Sen. John Rader, a Democrat who was then a member of the House, on Tuesday recalled meeting Hammond when the two found seats on the floor not far from each other and quickly struck up a friendship.
"He's the kind of man anybody would like to be," Rader said. "Terribly honest and straightforward. He had programs, but he always let you know exactly what they were. There wasn't any hidden agenda."
Hammond won re-election to the House twice, as a Republican, and also served as mayor of the Bristol Bay Borough and as a state senator.
He was elected governor in 1974, defeating Democrat Bill Egan by fewer than 300 votes.
He got through another cliffhanger election in 1978, edging Wally Hickel in the Republican primary, surviving a woolly post-primary season that saw uncounted ballots surfacing weeks after the vote and a courthouse challenge that finally was turned back by the Alaska Supreme Court.
His eight years in the governor's mansion spanned construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and passage of far-reaching federal laws setting aside millions of acres of parks and wildlife refuges. Critics lined up on both sides. To some, he was pro-development. He was too green for others.
"He really insisted things be done right," said Peg Tileston, a founder of the environmental law firm Trustees for Alaska. "He was very much attuned to making sure that the environmental protections were there."
Chancy Croft, an Anchorage attorney and former Democratic state senator whom Hammond defeated in the 1978 general election, said the two often disagreed but they never allowed it to damage their friendship.
"One of the things I think (has been) overlooked was that at a time when a tremendous amount of wealth was being taken out of Alaska, Hammond set the standard back in the 1970s that we might make mistakes, but they're not going to be mistakes of dishonesty or graft," Croft said.
Jerry Reinwand was a top Hammond aide. He recalled his former boss as "the most apolitical politician I ever met," but one who nonetheless knew how to flex muscle -- especially recognizing the leverage of his line-item veto power over the budget passed by the state Legislature.
Reinwand said he believes the germ of Hammond's signature legacy, the Permanent Fund, grew from his days as mayor of the Bristol Bay Borough, an area drained by poverty despite its rich salmon runs. The experience led Hammond to look for ways to make sure all Alaskans got a share of the state's oil wealth, he said.
Clem Tillion acknowledges that most Alaskans will remember Hammond for their annual dividend checks.
"But what he did that makes him a hero of mine was the anadromous fish act, and many of the things we take for granted," said Tillion, who was Republican president of the state Senate during part of Hammond's tenure.
"You know, if you pollute streams, you will be arrested."
Tillion said he thinks Hammond was misunderstood in the 1970s because he voiced reservations about some development projects at a time when many in the state were gung-ho for building almost anything.
"At the time, it was left over from the Gold Rush, and plunder was the name of the game," Tillion said. "It was traumatic to those people who ran their bulldozers over the salmon streams and thought it was their God-given right."
Former Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer, a Democrat, spent six of her first years in Alaska working in Republican Hammond's Juneau office, first as his legislative liaison and later as head of his Office of Policy Development and Planning. She said he had a simple formula for calculating the value of a development.
"Is it environmentally sound? Does it pay its own way? And do the people want it?
"Because he subjected proposals to those three tests, sometimes he made decisions that were popular, sometimes not," she said.
Former Gov. Tony Knowles said he and his wife, Susan, knew Hammond for more than 30 years.
"He inspired us and led us with his integrity and his independence," Knowles said. "And he did it with humor and humility."
Hammond, in fact, was a renowned humorist, a wordsmith who appreciated a turn of phrase, especially if it could be turned upside down. It was a skill that seemed to serve unerringly in political debate or casual conversation.
State Rep. Eric Croft, a Democrat from Spenard, recalled Hammond's response to a question during the 1978 governor's race. Croft's father, Chancy, was one of the candidates. All of them, Eric Croft said, were asked if they believed they were the best one for the job.
"Jay said, 'No, there are plenty of other Alaskans who can do a much better job than I could,' Croft said, adding that Hammond allowed himself a long pause to consider that possibility.
" 'Unfortunately, none of them are running.' "
Daily News reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.com.
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