Bruce Everett Cannon

Bruce Cannon, 95, was born Nov. 18, 1914, in Butte, Mont., to a monument carver, Fayette Alexander Cannon, and a schoolteacher, Nellie Christen Cannon. He was their first son of four. Two of his brothers, Robert and Ken, joined him to live and work in Alaska.

Bruce died Oct. 16, 2010.

Bruce majored in civil engineering at three colleges, Montana State University, Montana School of Mines and the University of Washington. It was at UW where Bruce met and married Margery Balhiser. The couple moved to Anchorage in 1934, where he was offered an engineering job with the Alaska Railroad. Over the next four decades, he was responsible for the bridges and buildings on the Seward to Fairbanks railroad line. Following the 1964 earthquake, Bruce was assigned the job of assessing damage to the railroad. He completed this job by making notes, sketching maps and taking aerial photographs from a helicopter.

Bruce was a civil engineer by trade, but he was also a house builder. He built a home in Anchorage where he and Margery raised three children, Bruce Jr., Anne and Michael.

Beginning in the 1960s, Bruce turned a one-room lakeside cabin into an amazing three-story home with an attached greenhouse. He and Margery spent their retirement years in this home, enjoying the huge variety of Alaska birds and animals. He also loved to hunt and fish, often bagging a moose during moose-hunting season. Wasilla was their address for fifty years.

Bruce and Margery loved to travel during their retirement years. They could be seen in their Airstream in almost all of the Lower 48 as well as Mexico, Central America and Canada. They also cruised to the Baltic, the Panama Canal, Greece, Turkey, Africa and their favorite, Hawaii.

Bruce is survived by his daughter, Anne; one brother, Norman; and 27 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Bruce’s granddaughter, Jennifer, was his companion and caregiver during the last months of his long life. She was ably assisted by her husband, Warren, and their children, Emily, Julie and Michelle.

An informal memorial service officiated by the Rev. Bert Hall will be held in Wasilla during the summer of 2011. Friends are invited to share memories and sign the family’s online guestbook at flintofts.com.