EDWIN G. CHURCH

Longtime Alaskan Mr. Edwin Graham Church, 70, died May 31, 2004, surrounded by family and friends, at his home in Copper Center.

He was born Nov. 1, 1933, in Mountain, Wisc. In 1935, at 18 months old, his family moved to Alaska as original Matanuska Valley Colonists. He graduated from Wasilla High School in 1951. He homesteaded in Wasilla in 1953, and he and his wife, Donna, homesteaded in Copper Center in 1963.

He was in the Army Artillery Corps, stationed at Fort Richardson during the Korean War. He was a locomotive crane engineer and fireman for the Alaska Railroad, and underground miner at the Evan Jones coal mine. He worked for the Alaska Road Commission/Department of Transportation and was sent statewide operating special equipment, serving in camps in Paxson, Trims and Glennallen, Thompson Pass during the 1964 earthquake, and foreman of 47 Mile Camp. Afterwards he worked for Standard Oil in Copper Center. He owned several businesses with his wife: school bus contracting, rural route mail carriers, commercial fishing and land developing. He retired in 1984 from the state Division of Forestry.

His family said, "Ed was a devoted husband and father. Life was never dull with Ed; the house was often a hubbub of family and friends. He loved telling jokes, and almost always had a smile on his face. His grandchildren, Gerek, Celia and Mathias, were the light of his eye, and he loved their short time together."

Mr. Church was preceded in death by his father, John Church; brother-in-law, John Bracker; and nephew, Greg Church. Survivors include his wife of 45 years, Donna Church, of Copper Center; daughter and son-in-law, Katrina Church-Chmielowski and Steve Chmielowski, of Copper Center; grandchildren Gerek, Celia and Mathias Chmielowski of Copper Center; his mother, Julia Church, of Palmer; brothers and sisters-in-law Jack and Orfa Church of Onalaska, Wash., Don and Billie Church of Wasilla, Bill and Ruby Church of Wasilla; sisters and brother-in-law Lorraine and Charlie Lindberg of Salem, Ore., Rose and Elmer Feltz of Wasilla; sister, Alice Caputo, of Rices Landing, Penn.; brother-in-law, Charles Bracker, of Sonoma, Calif.; in-laws Sue Bracker of Palmer, Richard and Rose Bracker of Iowa, Ollie Bracker of Indiana, Pat Scott of Iowa, Karen and Rodney Bowling of Texas; and many loved nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held June 8 from 2-6 p.m. at the Elks Club in Palmer, on Finger Lake. A memorial picnic and potluck was held Saturday at Ed and Donna Church's house in Copper Center.