ARNOLD C. PERRY

Wasilla resident Arnold Cochrane "A.C." Perry, 88, died March 16, 2001, at Valley Hospital in Palmer.

A graveside service and interment of ashes, with military honors, took place at 3 p.m. Friday at Fort Richardson National Cemetery, with Pastor Neil Biloff of the Seventh-day Adventist Church officiating.

Mr. Perry was born Jan. 4, 1913, in Corning, N.Y., to George and Maude (Cochrane) Perry. He graduated from Trinidad College in 1951 with a gunsmith degree. He worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1936 to 1938, and served in the U.S. Army from 1939 to 1948, where he obtained the rank of staff sergeant.

He was married to Lorraine Thomas on March 3, 1937. He came to Alaska in 1940, residing first in Skagway. He lived in Juneau from 1941 to 1945, for a time in McGrath, Cordova and Anchorage, in Adak from 1960 to 1965, in Wrangell in 1973, in Anchorage from 1974 to 1977, and in Wasilla since 1980.

From 1934 to 1937 he worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps at the Death Valley Monument in Furnace Creek, Calif. He worked with Civil Service from 1948 to 1950 in the western dtates, and from 1955 to 1969 in California, Adak and Greenland. He worked for the Alaska Department of Health and Safety as an OSHA inspector from 1974 until his retirement in 1977.

Mr. Perry was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Mayflower Society, the Matanuska Valley Sportsmens Association, the National Rifleman's Association, and the American Radio Relay League.

His hobby and special interest was ham radio — call letters KL78T and K6TGX — and he was an avid gun enthusiast and gunsmith.

His family said, "He was a true Irish/Scotsman who was proud of his heritage, his country, his accomplishments and those of his wife and children. He was well-known for his willingness to help anyone in need, as he never met a stranger."

Surviving is his wife, Lorraine of Wasilla; son and daughter-in-law, Craig T. and Shirley; daughters and sons-in-law, Toni and John Franklin, Dana and Mark Freiberger and Ann A. Puglise; grandchildren, Scott Franklin, Lisa Strickland, Brian and Kimberly Puglise; and great-grandchildren, Madison Strickland and Scott R. Franklin.

Arrangements were made by Valley Funeral Home & Crematory of Wasilla.