CLEO B. MCMAHAN

Cleo B. McMahan, veteran Alaska bush pilot and guide, died peacefully of natural causes at his daughter's home in Palmer, on Saturday, July 30, 2005. Family members were by his side.

A celebration of his life is planned for 3 p.m., Aug. 14, 2005, at his son's home and yard near the Gakona Bridge, Mile 2 Tok Cut-Off. For further information, people may call (907) 822-3441. After an informal time of remembrance and honoring Mr. McMahan, everyone is welcome to stay for live music, a picnic and a bonfire. All are encouraged to share experiences they have had with him, special songs, poems, prayers and photos.

His family wrote, "The nurses with Hospice of Mat-Su became our personal friends and we would like to especially thank them here."

Born Cleo Bryan McMahan on Sept. 24, 1912, in a sod house on the Kansas prairie, he finished high school and worked odd jobs until age 27. At that time, having saved enough money to leave Kansas, he worked his way to Seattle via Colorado, boarded an Alaska steamship and headed north.

In May 1939 he stepped off the boat in Seward with $37 in his pocket, and from that day forward, Alaska was his home. For the next 66 years he would leave only for short visits with family who lived Outside.

During his first four years in Alaska, Mr. McMahan worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps, Civil Aviation Association, Alaska Fire Control and the Alaska Road Commission. He helped construct the BLM airstrip and log cabin at Rohn, which now serves as an Iditarod Trail checkpoint.

It was in the Anchorage office of the Alaska Fire Control that he first met Daphne Cunningham.

After seeing Mr. McMahan's colored slides of some of the places he had worked in Alaska, and hearing him talk of places like Talkeetna, Chitina and Gakona, she told him that was the kind of life she had come north to find. They married in December 1943 and lived all of their 57 years together with time mostly divided between the small town of Gakona and their homesite near Meiers Lake on the Richardson Highway.

Mr. McMahan learned to fly in Fairbanks shortly after arriving in Alaska and bought his bright yellow J-3 Cub in the spring of 1946.

McMahan's Flying Service was established shortly thereafter and was to become the well-known and well-respected business that hunters, fishermen, wildlife officials, and geologists often used throughout the following five decades.

The McMahans had four children. Since his wife's death in 2001, Mr. McMahan has lived with his daughter, Susan, in Anchorage and with his other daughter, Sally, in Palmer. Both of his sons still live with their families in Gakona.

His family wrote, "Cleo was a gentle, unassuming man, never drawing attention to himself. He always joked that he was a decrepit old man, but it wasn't until he reached his late 80s that anybody really believed him. He was happiest in the company of the generations that followed him - his grandchildren and an ever-increasing number of great-grandchildren.

"Cleo died as he had lived, peacefully and quietly. He was a pleasure to care for in his last days. 'Please' and 'Thank you' were words he used often. He never complained and did not become bitter or critical as his physical abilities declined, but was grateful for everything. He was a quiet believer in God and looked forward to meeting again his Grandma Mac, his mother, Maude, and all the other relatives who have gone on before him. We miss his gentle presence more than words could ever say."

Mr. McMahan is survived by his sisters, Vernita Thomas of Sequim, Wash., and Lois Gordon of Waterville, Kans.; daughters, Susan Sanders and Sally McMahan Pollen; sons, Harley McMahan and Chuck McMahan; grandchildren, Kelly Harden, Tracy Harris-Inman, Lisa Cooper, Jolene Vogelien, Angela Kulp, Shelley Wilcox, April Smith, Benjamin Pollen Summit, Heidi Jacobsen, Gabriel McMahan, Jeremiah Chapeau, Rebecca McMahan, Alex McMahan, Jenny McMahan, Johnny McMahan, Bryan McMahan, and 22 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brother, Harley; father, Aura, and mother, Maude.