Privacy Advocate

	Homer News file photo

Irwin Ravin’s community will remember him as a loving father and a caring neighbor, and he will be remembered nationally for championing Alaska privacy laws, and testing marijuana laws. He died April 11 at the age of 70.

Ravin was born in Newark, N.J. He dropped out of college to join the U.S. Army when he was 20, and qualified for officer’s school. He chose to work in radio communications instead. After returning to Newark he finished college at Rutgers University and attended law school at New York University. He was admitted to the bar and worked as a clerk with his uncle Morris Ravin in the firm Ravin and Ravin.

In 1967, the Ravins moved to Alaska because Newark was experiencing civil unrest, and Ravin didn’t feel that it was a safe place for his wife and two small children. They first went to Fairbanks, where he was admitted to the Alaska Bar. Ravin also practiced in Ketchikan, Anchorage and Homer, where the family settled in 1971, first living in a tent until they built their house. He practiced criminal defense and family practice law.

In 1972, Ravin deliberately had himself arrested with a stash of marijuana in his pocket so he could challenge marijuana laws.

Ravin appealed his conviction to the Alaska Supreme Court. In 1975 the court ruled that Alaskans had a constitutional right to privacy that allowed adults to used marijuana in their own homes. He argued that marijuana was no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol, and that the state had no compelling interest to ban its use by adults in their homes.

“Marijuana has never been an issue for me. The fight was always for privacy,” Ravin said in a 1990 Homer News article. “Our territory, and now state, has traditionally been the home of people who prize their individuality and who have chosen to achieve a measure of control over their own lifestyles which is now virtually unattainable in many of our sister states.”

Although he was well known as a lawyer, he was also a seine and halibut fisherman, crabber and Alaska oil pipeline worker. In his later years, he drove taxicabs in Homer right up to the day of his heart attack.

He was an avid reader and appeared in numerous theatre productions. Community members described him as intelligent, loving, kind-hearted, helpful and “a real Renaissance person.”

Clyde Bell, 60, died March 25. He graduated from Haines High School, served in Vietnam, and worked as a longshoreman, carpenter, roofer, and fisherman. In 1978 he bought Bell’s Store from his family, and opened Bell’s Seafood with his wife, Doris, in 1994. They had two sons, Matthew and Russ.

Jim Bowles, 57, died Feb. 13 in an avalanche. He was president of Conoco Phillips Alaska, and influenced oil tax politics and gas pipeline development. Bowles advocated for Conoco Phillips to contribute $15 million for the University of Alaska’s new science building and $5 million for Providence Alaska Medical Center’s new cancer center. He loved to hunt and fish.

Melvin Frederic Daroff, 82, died Dec. 7. He was born in Haines and served in the military at the end of World War II. Daroff attended A&P Mechanic School in California where he met his future wife, Carol Wood. They moved to Juneau where he worked at Alaska Coastal Airlines as a mechanic.

Harold C. Diamond, 76, died March 4. He was born in Ketchikan. Subsistence skills were always important to him. He was a commercial fisherman and a construction, pulp mill and oil-platform worker. 

Cecelia Greenewald, 79, died March 21. She was born in Sitka, and raised six children with her, husband, Karl in Hoonah. Greenewald worked for the Hoonah Trading Co. and Greenewald’s Store. She enjoyed subsistence activities, volunteering in her community, and spoke Tlingit fluently. 

Fred S. Honsinger, 89, died March 5. He and his wife, Lenore, moved to Juneau in 1951 to begin a private veterinary practice. In 1962, Honsinger became the state veterinarian and later retired from the Department of Envir-onmental Conservation after a 32-year career.

Edwell George John Sr., 76, died March 12. After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy, he returned to Angoon, where he was born. He married, started a family and made his living as a subsistence hunter, fisherman and guide. He loved family, fishing and basketball.

Ethelyn Ernestine Jones, 90, died Dec. 2. Her parents owned J.T. Brown’s Store in Craig. She operated J.T. Brown’s store, with her husband Charles, and served on the school board, at the library and attended the Craig Presbyterian Church. She enjoyed sport fishing, trolling and beachcombing.

Robert Harvey Mellin, 95, died Oct. 15. In 1942, he moved to Alaska with his wife, Patricia. They had four children and homesteaded near Wasilla, where Mellin loved to feed his ducks, garden, read and quote his Constitutional rights. He supervised jet engine repair on Elmendorf Air Force Base.

Harryet Rappier, 84, died April 9. She was a lifetime resident of Juneau, a direct descendant of the Ice Man mummy, and understood the Tlingit language. Her drawing titled, “Keep the torch of peace forever burning,” hangs in the Seward school.

Juanita Mae Urquhart, 93, died March 28. During her 65 years in Ketchikan, she worked on several commercial fishing boats and at several law firms, and owned and operated the Mountain Point Grocery store. She was active in Eastern Star and Pioneers of Alaska. 

William Wakeland, 87, died Feb. 10. He worked in the cannery, fished, ran a transfer business and took photos in Seldovia. Later, he worked as a tax assessor in Palmer and then moved to Anchorage where he formed The Wakeland Co.

Notices are limited, because of space, to names of those who have achieved pioneer status through many years in the North, or who have made significant contributions to the state. Submissions for End of the Trail may be sent to eot@alaskamagazine.com