Harold Newcomb dead at 83

Former two-time Wasilla Mayor Harold Sherwood Newcomb, 83, died Monday morning, said his son-in-law, Larry Ouellette.

He said Newcomb had recently undergone surgery.

“It’s never a good time for this stuff,” Ouellette said.

Newcomb ran away from home when he was 14, joined the military and came to Alaska in 1948 with the U.S. Army. He arrived in the Mat-Su Valley in 1952.

He was part of the steering committee to create the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the early 1960s. He also served on the first borough assembly in 1964.

“He was in on the ground level of the making of Alaska,” Ouellette said.

Newcomb Park at the corner of the Parks Highway and Crusey Street in Wasilla was named for him. He purchased the land and donated it to the city as a gift.

In a 2011 Frontiersman interview, Newcomb said he paid $2 for the land the park is on and saved it in honor of Chief Wasilla, for whom the city is named.

Newcomb was honored in 2002 with the prestigious Denali Award for lifetime achievement at the Alaskan of the Year banquet.

He and his wife, Patricia, a Matanuska Colony daughter, raised four children and have 14 grandchildren.