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Chuck Robinson, who founded telecom company ACS, dies at 83

Charles "Chuck" Robinson, a pioneering telecommunications executive who founded internet and phone service provider Alaska Communications Systems, died on Tuesday. He was 83.

Robinson started ACS and served as its chairman and chief executive from 1999 to 2003, back when landline telephone service, rather than cellphones and the internet, was the bread and butter of telecom companies. In 2000, ACS was the dominant telecom provider in the state, employing more than 1,100 people and counting 400,000 subscribers statewide.

Highly active in political circles, Robinson was close with powerful Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. He was a prolific political contributor to untold numbers of lawmakers and helped Veco chief Bill Allen finance his purchase of the Anchorage Times nearly a decade before Allen was disgraced in a political corruption scandal. The Times, now closed, was the former Anchorage Daily News' principal rival in a local newspaper war in the 1980s and early 1990s. Allen later spent nearly two years in federal prison for bribing Alaska politicians.

Robinson came to Alaska after serving as a communications specialist during the Korean War. He worked on the White Alice Communications System, a Cold War-era communications network intended to convey word of an attack by the Soviet Union and which also allowed for civilian telephone calls from remote areas of Alaska.

"He wasn't a guy who would get up and speak to an auditorium, but he was incredibly charismatic and funny one-on-one and in small groups," said longtime business associate Wes Carson. "His leadership style was based on personal relationships and loyalty. You wanted to follow him and perform."

Robinson helped launch satellite service in rural Alaska and oversaw the laying of copper and fiber optic lines to major Alaska cities.

"He was pivotal in driving Alaska into the modern era," Carson said.

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Before starting ACS, Robinson was president and chief executive of two telecom companies, Alascom and Pacific Telecom. He was a board member of the U.S. Telephone Association from 1993 to 1995 and 1999 to 2002.

After retiring, Robinson moved to North Carolina, where he built a race horse breeding operation called Denali Farm in Southern Pines. Last year his horse, Imperial Eagle, won the All American Futurity, a $3 million race for quarter horses at Ruidosa Downs in New Mexico.

A memorial service will be held in Alaska on a date to be determined. Robinson is survived by his wife, Christina, five children, 10 grandchildren and 12 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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