Alaska News

Former Alaska attorney general Avrum Gross dies at 82

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker ordered state flags lowered to half-staff to honor the passing of former attorney general Avrum M. Gross,  who helped steer the state through transformative times. He was 82.

Gross died on Monday night, according to the Governor's office. His family said he died at a remote family property between Juneau and Sitka.

Gross was attorney general from 1974-1980 under then-Gov. Jay Hammond.

He was the head of the Department of Law during "some of state's most significant watershed moments. During his tenure, the Trans-Alaska pipeline was completed, and carried its first barrels of oil south from Prudhoe Bay," the governor's office wrote in a statement put out Wednesday. "With it came Alaska's Permanent Fund and a brand new vision about what Alaska's future could be like."

Gross was instrumental in negotiating an agreement that led to the state taking responsibility for "providing schools in villages, no matter how remote" and contributed to a significant revision of state criminal code in 1980, according to the governor's office.

Walker ordered flags be flown at half-staff until sundown on Thursday.

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