A legend passes

Residents remember Jay Hammond

Aug. 5, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Word spread quickly that former governor Jay Hammond died during his sleep Monday night or Tuesday morning. The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today were a few of the national media outlets that reported the story of Hammond's life and legendary political accomplishments.

Over the last three days, countless politicians, past and present, praised Hammond's extraordinary public service to Alaska and the creation of his most definitive political legacy, the Alaska Permanent Fund and the annual dividend it pays out to every Alaskan.

While many spoke of Hammond's bipartisan leadership and undying Alaska loyalty, several of his lifelong friends and colleagues, now in their 70s and 80s, remembered the character that was the foundation of Hammond's rugged Alaska persona. Several Mat-Su residents recalled this week the impressions that shaped their understanding of Hammond.

Joe Delia, now 75, lives in Skwentna, working as the town postmaster and part-time trapper. He remembered meeting Hammond at the Skwentna post office in 1948, when he was just 18 and Hammond only 26. Hammond worked for Rainy Pass Lodge, flying mail into the sparsely populated Alaska Range outpost. Delia said he enjoyed the times when Hammond flew through town.

"I was trapping then," Delia said by phone Wednesday from his Skwentna home. "Jay was great to talk to. He was an ordinary guy doing the best he could."

As the years passed, Delia lost contact with Hammond but still found himself rejoicing when he heard of Hammond's election to state governor.

"I was really happy, because he'd done it all," Delia said. "A trapper, guide, commercial fisherman, bush pilot, homesteader - he was one of the old-timers."

Just as important to Delia, however, was Hammond's sense of morality.

"He was as honest and forthright as a person could be. His morals were something you rarely see today."

Like many Alaskans who once worked with or knew Hammond for a period of his life, Delia hadn't seen the governor in decades. Despite the distance, word of his death was still difficult to swallow.

"I shed some tears last night when I found out he was gone," Delia confessed. "He was just one great man. I don't think we'll see that type again."

From his home near Trunk Road, former state senator Jay Kerttula recalled his own definitive encounter with Hammond, a week in the mid-1960s, when they both served as legislators. That year, the two senators flew to dozens of villages along the Yukon River, visiting residents and listening to their concerns.

Despite opposing political party affiliations, Kerttula, a Democrat, said Hammond's humility and personality allowed the pair to have open discussions, which ultimately lead to a longstanding friendship.

"His observations and mine were very similar, and we became simpatico," Kerttula said, Wednesday. "We became very close friends."

Again, it was humility that Kerttula said defined Hammond's character.

"He was a World War II veteran, and he received medals, but he never campaigned on his military service," Kerttula said. "They were something, those Marine flyers. But he never trafficked that with the newspapers."

Hammond's humor and earnest approach to people left a lasting impression on former Palmer mayor Charles Logsdon. Now 84, Logsdon met Hammond before he ever went into politics. Years later, Logsdon worked with Hammond to establish the PFD and said the governor's direct approach with people showed a respect that drew them to him.

"He was a very straightforward guy," Logsdon said. "He told it like it was. That's what I liked."

Wasilla resident Katie Hurley also had a distinguished political career in Alaska. At age 84, she was only a year older than Hammond, and the two of them worked together through the state's early years.

Hurley, also a Democrat, first met Hammond when he came to the state Legislature in 1959.

"I was the secretary of the Senate and he was elected as an independent," Hurley said. "The Legislature was overwhelmingly Democratic then. He joined up with the Republicans, but he was always fun to be around."

Over the next few decades, Hurley watched Hammond's political career take off, but she said he remained willing to work with her and other Democrats to find common ground.

When they disagreed, Hurley said Hammond did it with grace and humor. Once he wrote her a poem when she finally retired from politics, thanking her and also ribbing her for being a Democrat for all those years.

"It was an ode to me," Hurley said, laughing. "It was very amusing."

Hurley was also impressed by Hammond's commitment to his roots, 180 miles from Anchorage on Lake Clark, despite his status as a state folk hero.

"I admire that he went back to where he came from," she said. "He was always a part of that community."

In his later years, as age took its toll, Hammond's ability to stay active, while taking ailments in stride, stuck with Hurley.

"A lot of it was that he was such a humble person," she said. "He didn't dwell on old age, and it didn't stop him. He just faced the facts and didn't worry that there were some things he couldn't do."

Until his final weeks, Hammond continued to travel, write opinion pieces for newspapers and visit old friends. Hurley said she thought his ability to embrace life as it came kept him engaged to the very end.

"He didn't just fade into the sunset."

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266, or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.