Business and Public Policy Leader
Walter Hickel

Businessman, former U.S. secretary of the interior and two-time Alaska governor Walter “Wally” Hickel died May 7. He was 90.

Hickel was born in Kansas and moved to Alaska in 1940 with 37 cents in his pocket. He worked as a bartender, carpenter and aircraft inspector. He began building and selling homes, started a motel chain and developed the Northern Lights Shopping Center, which boasted Alaska’s first escalator. He also developed Anchorage’s first quality hotel, the Captain Cook.

In 1941, Hickel married Janice Cannon, who died two years later. They had one son. In 1945 he married Ermalee Strutz, with whom he had five sons.
Hickel was politically active as early as 1952, when he started flying to Washington to lobby for statehood. He was elected governor in 1966 as a Republican, and expedited North Slope oil and gas exploration that led to the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. He split from the Alaska Republicans to align with Democrats during the statehood push in the 1950s.
In 1990 he was elected governor on a third-party ticket, the Alaskan Independence Party, with Jack Coghill—another longtime Alaska politician—on the ticket as lieutenant governor.

In 1969, he became secretary of the interior under President Richard Nixon. Hickel responded to a 100,000-barrel oil spill of the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., by issuing stricter offshore drilling regulations. In 1970, a Chevron platform in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire and spewed more than 40,000 barrels. Hickel authorized an investigation and found that Chevron had failed to install the required safety devices on 90 wells and pressed the Justice Department to file a suit charging 900 violations of the Outer Continental Self Lands Act of 1953. He also led a successful campaign to stop construction of a mammoth jetport in the Everglades.

He also tried to delay approval of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline after speaking with geologists in Washington who convinced him that major safety-related changes were needed in the pipeline’s original plans to avoid environmental damage to millions of acres of tundra. The pipeline was completed in 1977.
Hickel played a critical role in persuading Nixon to support the settlement of Alaska Native land claims and congress passed a settlement bill, with Nixon’s support, in 1971. Hickel later sent a letter to President Nixon opposing the president’s Vietnam War policies and it was leaked to the press. Hickel was fired on May 20, 1970.

Involvement in public policy was very important to Hickel, and he made contributions to public forums and local institutions aimed at fostering discussion of public policy issues such as the Institute of the North, a group that focuses on northern region policy issues. He helped found the Commonwealth North, an Anchorage-based business and public-policy group. Hickel was buried with 37 cents in his pocket.

Dona Agosti, 85, died March 9. In 1954, she moved to Alaska with her husband, Lino, and their three daughters. They had four sons in Alaska. Agosti was an active church and Republican Party member, volunteer, businesswoman, mother and philanthropist. She loved backpacking, hiking and cross-country skiing.

Benjamin Alfred Diego Cantil, 92, died June 28. Born in Metlakatla, he was the first son of 14 children. He began fishing with his father at age 5 and developed a knack for engine repair and fabricating tools and engine parts. He was trained by master totem carvers, and he carved and helped salvage yellow cedar totem poles at
Totem Bight in Ketchikan. A 59-year-member of the IBEW, he was a line crew foreman when he retired in 1980.  

Henry Akiyama, 82, died April 9. In 1961 he moved to Juneau. Akiyama practiced medicine for 43 years and received many awards. He established the coronary care unit at Bartlett Memorial Hospital, helped create the Mobile Coronary Care Unit, and assisted in emergency medical technician training. He enjoyed the outdoors, gardening, sports, family and friends.
Edwina Opheim Anderson, 76, died July 2. She was born in Kodiak and grew up mainly in Washington State, returning to Kodiak in 1976 and marrying Harry Anderson. She loved to collect beach glass along Kodiak’s shoreline and to can local produce.

Margie G. Carlson, 90, died April 5. With her husband, Boyd, she operated Bear Lake Sawmill and Bay View Sawmill in Seward, logging camps on Montague and Hinchinbrook Islands in Prince William Sound, and a mobile home park by the Tazlina River near Glennallen.

James Joseph Dougherty, 88, died July 8. He was born in Philadelphia and attended high school in New Jersey, where he met his wife, Rita, in chemistry class. He enlisted in the Marine Air Corps at the start of World War II and served  in the Philippines. After the war, he married Rita and the couple moved to Alaska. and he attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks and worked construction. The family left Alaska for a few years while he worked in various locations for the Federal Aviation Administration and came back to the state in the 1970s to help build the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. After his retirement, the couple took 40 cruises in various locations around the world.

Roy J. Gordon, 87, died April 18. In 1950 he moved to Juneau with his wife, Eunice, where he worked as a deputy with the police department and as a longshoreman and for the United States Geological Service aboard the Watres. In 1967, the couple moved to Kenai where he worked as a custodian.

 Charles “Charlie Tuna” Jacobson, 72, died April 22. He served in the Korean War and moved to Ketchikan in 1967. He worked for the Alaska Marine Highway System for 31 years. He enjoyed riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and was a history buff.

William Harry LEfferson, 83, died July 10. He was born on Montana and came to Alaska shortly after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He married Bernice Lund in 1947 and moved to Fairbanks, where he worked as a gold dredge welder. later, he worked for the Alaska Road Commission as a road crew member and for the Civil Aeronautics Administration, retiring in 1975. He later helped build the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. He married Charlotte in 1973, and they started Valiant Marine Charters and built their own commercial fishing vessel, The Valiant Maid.

Irving “Bud” Lowell, 87, died June 23. He was born in Juneau and worked in his father’s fishing and fish-buying business around Elfin Cove while a student at Juneau High School. He served in World War II as commander of a mine sweeper in the Pacific and, after the war, he got a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Colorado. He was married to his wife, Jane, for 62 years and they had five children.

Robert charles Meck, 70, died May 29. He was born in Burlington, Iowa, and later lived in Arizona and Nevada, before moving to Ketchikan in 1979 with his wife, Jaquie, and two children. He worked at Jerry’s Tackle Box and for the Ketchikan Pulp Co., and was a pressman for the local paper for 12 years.

Tom Miklautsch, 81, died Oct. 2. He was a pharmacist, a regent at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, general manager of Alaska Goldpanners, founder of Tanana Valley Clinic, member of the Fairbanks City Council, president of the Alaska Toastmasters, a leader in the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Association and an adventurer.

Jesse P. Moore, 87, died May 15. He worked as a crane operator and, later, as an ironworker building military bases throughout the state. In 1958, he moved with his wife, Lorrayne, and children to a homestead on Moose River. He started Cotton Moore Enterprises in 1960, selling his artwork, ornamental iron and welding services.

Elsie Seaman, 90, died March 20. In 1952, Seaman and another woman, along with seven children, drove the Alaska Highway to reunite with their husbands. Seaman and her husband, Carl, homesteaded near Kenai and raised four children. She taught at the Kenai Territorial School and continued teaching until she retired in 1976.

Donald Guy Shira, 71, died May 5. He was a wastewater treatment plant operator in Juneau and volunteered for the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, a judo school, Habitat for Humanity and church activities. He loved boating, fishing and woodworking.

Fredrick Sortman, 71, died June 28. The U.S. Air Force brought Fred and his young family to Fairbanks in 1967. He was as an air traffic controller at Eielson Air Force Base until he retired in 1980. He then cared for his grandson and worked for the Bureau of Land Management for 20 years, managing the warehouse for fire services locally and at remote sites.

Walter Sperl, 93, died May 12. He and his wife, Clara, moved to Juneau in 1946 to work for Northern Commercial Company. In 1948 he started running the mail boat Yakobi out of Juneau on the 650-mile Alexander run. He later worked as chief engineer for the Alaska Marine Highway.

Marbara Thurow-Christopher, 66, died Feb. 14. She moved to Alaska in 1969 with her husband, Floyd, and had two children. She settled in Soldotna, where she was a foster parent for many years.

Gene Zimbrich, 61, died March 22. In the 1970s he moved to Alaska to join his brother. In 1974 he married Emily and they moved to Haines in 1980. He was a sheet-metal fabricator and
mechanical contractor with businesses in Haines and Skagway. He loved the outdoors, his family and friends.

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