Goodbye, old friend

To the editor:

Wasilla and the Mat-Su recently lost a longtime dedicated pioneer and resident — Mayor Harold Newcomb.

Harold served two terms as Wasilla’s mayor. He also served on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, Mat-Su Borough School Board, and club officer positions with the Wasilla Lions, Rotary and MTA Board of Directors. Within all of his years of dedicated, exemplary service to the community, Harold was instrumental in the creation of the city’s Wonderland Park, Military Honor Garden and our local ball fields.

He hosted foreign exchange students, worked the United Way campaign and was a founding member of the Wasilla ambulance and EMT drivers programs. Harold received a Denali Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2002 Alaskan of the Year banquet.

Twenty years ago Harold, with the help of Bob Bowers, began the first Christmas Friendship Dinner in Wasilla, which originally fed about 90 people. Last Christmas, the number was in the thousands locally.

The park on Wasilla Lake was dedicated to Harold due to his generous gift. Harold also operated many businesses in our community, including a hardware store, radio station KMBQ, the Valley Press newspaper and real estate sales, to name a few.

There is so much more to say. I visited with Harold shortly after New Year’s Day to check in on him, bring him yet another accolade awarded for his efforts for the Christmas Dinner, and just talk. He was in good spirits, enthusiastic about the growth of our Valley and looking forward. I would expect nothing other than an optimistic outlook from him. We at Wasilla City Hall will miss Harold’s visits, but we will also cherish the memory of them.

Goodbye, old friend, ’til we meet again.

Verne E. Rupright

Mayor