My Story

My parents met at Mount McKinley during World War II. My dad served with the Alaskan Scouts in the Aleutians and my mother worked with the Corps of Engineers during the construction of the Alaska Highway and later was the Women’s Page editor for the Fairbanks Daily News Miner. I am the youngest of four children and I was born in Fairbanks and spent my childhood in Fairbanks, Delta and Valdez.

My family lost everything in the ‘64 earthquake, we buried our friends, classmates and neighbors. I will never forget my parents gathering the family to explain that we had the option of declaring bankruptcy or of pulling together as a family with everyone doing their part to pay our debts and rebuild our lives. We chose the latter and everyone went to work. At twelve years old, I was awarded the janitorial contract with the post office, which I performed by going to work every morning before school started. After school and throughout the summer, I also worked tirelessly with our small family construction company and others salvaging homes and buildings and later helped relocate the town of Valdez to a new town site.

I put myself through my first year of college on a meager basketball scholarship, living with a former elementary school teacher and her family. All my family lost materially, we regained as the TransAlaska pipeline boom hit our town. I worked in the Carpenters’, Teamsters’, and Laborers’ unions each summer to earn the remainder of my college tuition. I graduated with a business degree from Lewis and Clark College in 1973.

Barely out of college, I was selected to represent my community and state on an OMAR (Organization for the Management of Alaska’s Resources) delegation, lobbying key elected officials around the country to support an All-Alaskan gas line. Thus began my thirty year progression of efforts to develop Alaska’s natural resources. In 1977, I was elected to the Valdez City Council. In 1979, at the age of 28, I became Valdez’ youngest mayor during those early, exciting yet challenging years when oil first began flowing into Valdez.

In 1980, Donna and I headed to the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now Seattle University) and upon graduation in 1983, we both worked for the Hughes, Thorsness law firm where later I was elected by the 50+ attorneys to the management committee. Donna and I started our own firm in 1995 where we have specialized primarily in municipal and oil and gas law. We have managed and/or owned several successful businesses over the years and are well acquainted with the challenges confronting Alaska’s small business owners. On a national level, I am no stranger to the Capitol. Over the years I have made numerous trips to represent Alaska’s interests by testifying before congressional committees and meeting with various administrative agencies and representatives.

As the project manager and general counsel for the Alaska Gasline Port Authority for the past ten years, I have traveled the globe to meet and negotiate at the highest level with various international companies, including all of the North Slope producers. On various legal issues I have been both on their side and on the opposing side and they know I am a fierce protector of the interests of Alaskans. I have studied the North Slope leases and have retained some of the best legal minds in the country to advise me of the producers’ obligations under their leases.

Donna and I have been married for thirty-two years and have raised four wonderful children, primarily in Anchorage where we have resided for over twenty years.   While the children were young our lives centered around church, school, sports and enjoying all the Alaskan adventures.  They are all West High graduates.  Lindsay, 27, is an attorney; Tessa, 25, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan and is pursuing her nurse practitioner degree;  Adam, 24, is a dental school student;  and Jordan,20, is a business major and a junior at the University of Denver.  We have two great sons-in-law and a darling little granddaughter. Our favorite times now as a family are long weekends at our Nancy Lake cabin. We attend Faith Christian Community Church. We have also had the joy of serving with our children in many volunteer and community efforts, as well as on foreign medical mission trips, most recently to the prisons in Guyana.