Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words

Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words

Episode 2: Vic Fischer

Episode transcript Vic Fischer: When I came to Alaska in 1950 I was completely shocked to find that I was no longer a full-fledged citizen of the United States. Opening titles. Narrator: Vic Fischer was born in Berlin in 1924 with dual U.S. and Russian citizenship. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of…

Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words

Episode 3: Tom Stewart

Tom Stewart was the fourth of five children born in Idaho, who found his was to Alaska through his father, a mining engineer who worked the gold mines in Juneau. As a young man he was a ski bum, but because of his role later on in turning the territory of Alaska into the 49th state, friend and fellow judge Walter Carpeneti once likened him to “Alaska’s Ben Franklin.”

Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words

Episode 7: Katie Hurley

Katie Hurley, born Kathryn Torkelson in 1921, was the daughter of Norweigan immigrants who met in Juneau. She was a long-time staffer to territorial Gov. Ernest Gruening, and chief clerk of the Alaska Constitutional Convention. In 1960, she remarried and moved to Wasilla. She was the first woman in Alaska to win a contested primary election for a statewide seat and is a member of the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame.

Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words

Episode 9: Jay Hammond (part 1)

Jay Hammond was born in upstate New York in 1922. He became an Alaska bush pilot after World War II and stumbled into the newly established state’s politics. He was a key player in deciding how the state would manage its newfound oil wealth, and eventually became one of Alaska’s most colorful governors.

Alaska Statehood Pioneers: In Their Own Words

Episode 10: Jay Hammond (part 2)

By 1974, Jay Hammond had put in 12 years as a state representative, senator, and senate president. Despite his ambivalence about being a politician, Hammond went on to be a two-term governor who oversaw the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund, the dividend program and, to his chagrin, the repeal of the personal income tax.

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