Stephen Haycox, an Alaska historian and author who taught at the University of Alaska Anchorage for more than 40 years, died Friday at age 85.
Haycox was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He received an undergraduate degree from Seattle University and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. He was also a Navy veteran.
He was with his wife, Dagmar Phillips, when he died in Seattle, according to a family friend.
At UAA, Haycox in essence launched the history program while the school was still known as Anchorage Senior College, developing it over the course of four decades. He was prolific as an author of books as well as scholarly and professional articles and newspaper columns. In retirement, he was named distinguished professor emeritus of history at UAA.
“He was Alaska’s leading historian,” said Jim Muller, a former colleague who is now professor emeritus at UAA’s political science department. “He published half a dozen books and many articles on Alaska history, which are read by people both here in Alaska, around the country and elsewhere.”
He also served as director of the 49th State Fellows Program in UAA’s University Honors College, a program he founded with Muller.
The program included courses in political science, history and economics, as well as tutorials, lectures, field trips and seminars. A large part of the program was driven by debate and discourse about the issues students were studying.
“Steve and I had lots of differences on politics, and the students got to hear two sides or more of many different things we were thinking about,” Muller said. “Steve was very open-minded and willing to listen to anybody’s argument, if it was any good.”
Former colleague Steve Johnson, who directed the UAA debate program, also leaned on Haycox’s penchant for lively discussion.
Johnson used Haycox as a sounding board for potential topics and participants for public debates the university hosted.
“We always tried to stick to issues that were of importance to Alaskans and timely in terms of things that Alaskans would or should be thinking about,” Johnson said. “His input there was very useful.”
Haycox retired from teaching full time at the university by the time Ian Hartman arrived as a professor in the school’s history department in 2011. But Haycox quickly became a friend and mentor to Hartman.
“I think Steve is probably the most prolific and important historian that Alaska has ever had, at least in terms of the sort of nature of his scholarship,” Hartman said.
Among the points of emphasis in Haycox’s scholarship was Alaska’s relationship with the federal government. That sometimes uneasy association was detailed in his 2016 book “Battleground Alaska: Fighting Federal Power in America’s Last Wilderness.”
“He was really good at demonstrating the multiple ways in which that sort of played out, from public lands to tourism, recreation to deeper structures of governance,” Hartman said. “It was kind of one of those through-lines in his career.”
Haycox was a regular contributor to the opinion pages of the Anchorage Daily News, dating back decades and continuing until last month.
Longtime ADN editor David Hulen retired in March but has continued editing opinion content in recent months.
“In a place with so many people who came from other places, his perspectives on Alaska history were valuable in a platform like the ADN,” Hulen said. “He helped us understand the place we live. Alaska’s also a place, like much of the American West, filled with mythology. His pieces often turned those myths on their ears. He showed Alaska history is just more nuanced and complex.”
Alaska at times is viewed as a relatively young place, granted statehood in 1959. But Johnson said Haycox was quick to bring context to what seemed like novel events to Alaskans.
“His depth and breadth of knowledge with regard to historical events and the human story always lent insights into the sorts of things that Alaskans felt like they were facing for the first time,” Johnson said.
Haycox was a musician — a horn player during his time in the Navy. He enjoyed traveling, both after retirement and during his time at UAA. He and Muller took students from the 49th State Fellows Program on regular trips, both historical journeys to the East Coast and visits overseas.
Haycox won the Alaska Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities and the University of Alaska’s Bullock Prize. In April, he received UAA’s Meritorious Service Award. He was named the Alaska Historical Society‘s Historian of the Year in 2003 and was a former president of the Alaska Historical Society and the Cook Inlet Historical Society.