David Donald Kraft

David Donald Kraft

David Donald Kraft died Sunday, March 14th, 2021, at his home in Alaska after a short battle with lung cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren

David’s ashes, as per his wishes, will be spread at his favorite fishing spot at Willow Creek in Alaska when the ice melts. He was an organ donor.

David was born October 24th, 1951, in Marlette, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. He moved to Alaska in 1980 to pursue the dream of living off the land away from the city. He owned his own sub-contracting company, Kraft Roofing, and worked on many of the homes and businesses in the valley during the construction boom in the ‘80s (if you lived in the valley he “probably roofed your shack”), as well as running a bread bakery at local fairs in the ‘90s.

He loved to fish and golf, and he loved waiting for his grandkids to get on and off the bus every day. He got to spend his last 17 years caring for his grandchildren as a grumpy old man, tooling around his garden growing vegetables and world class raspberries and strawberries, and bragging to his kids about how he and Sue “did a pretty good job on ‘em.”

He loved logic and word puzzles, and he was an avid reader his entire life, particularly of sci-fi, war literature and history, ancient philosophy, and the books his kids took interest in during their own studies. He also knew all of the answers on Jeopardy, unless the category was Pop Culture.

David is survived by his mother, Lorraine; brothers, Dan and Phil; sister, Mary-Lou; his former wife, Susan, and their son, Alexander; daughter, Patricia and son in-law, Evan; son, Zebadiah, and partner, Hannah; son, Nicholas, and daughter in-law, Simone; son, Benjamin, and daughter in-law, Jasmin; grandchildren, Zebadiah, David, Adam, Alexis, Bernardo, Ash, Henry, and Khail.

David was preceded in death by his father, Donald Robert Kraft.

There will be a celebration of life at 4PM on May 22, 2021 at Amvets Post 9 in Wasilla, Alaska.