Hats off to a Mat-Su matriarch

It’s been a long time since anyone made the sort of cloth from which Jay Nolfi is cut.

Born in Pennsylvania coal country, she moved to Alaska with her soon-to-be husband Adrian in 1947. Adrian had his first taste of Alaska when he served a tour here during World War II. After the war, he decided to return to the Last Frontier and asked Jay if she’d like to tag along.

“That was his way of asking me to marry him,” Nolfi said. “So, we came to Alaska and lived in Palmer with some friends he made when he was up here.”

She found work at the state Department of Taxation (now Department of Revenue) when it was a two-person office. But Jay said she recognized the sound the whistle at the coal mine near Palmer made to signal when a miner had been injured. She knew she didn’t want that risk for her own young family, she said, so the couple moved to Anchorage where they found work with the state.

Jay and Adrian — who was eventually named to the Coal Miners Hall of Fame in Sutton and passed away in 1997 — moved back to the Valley in 1979, settling in the Big Lake area. The move sparked what has been more than three decades of relentless community service for Nolfi.

Her community service in the borough includes two terms on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly from 1993-99, six years on the borough Ethics Board (five years as its chairperson), president of the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce, president of the Big Lake Community Council, officer for the National Secretary’s Association and a Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Civic Person of the Year.

“Actually, I don’t think life is fulfilled completely unless you offer your service to the public, and I really mean that,” she said. “I’m a great supporter of volunteerism and I know we’re a much better community when it does happen.”

Though retired from the assembly for more than a decade, she’s no stranger to current Assemblyman Mark Ewing, who says she’s also quick to offer constructive criticism, as needed.

“I enjoy talking to her,” he said. “Every once in a while, if you step out of line, you get a little butt-kicking, but that’s fine. That’s her job. It’s too bad there aren’t more people like Jay Nolfi.”

Nolfi says she passes Fish Creek Park on her way home every day and the idea of having it named for her is still a little surreal, but she said she’s pleased by the tribute.

“I can’t believe that it’s happening. All the time I have done any volunteer work, I have never for a moment expected any praise. I did it because I wanted to do it and I wanted it to be good. I am certainly overwhelmed.”

Nolfi will join the Big Lake community and others from across the Valley at a dedication ceremony and potluck in her honor at 5 p.m., Saturday at Fish Creek Park, Mile 4.9 South Big Lake Road. At that time, the park will be renamed the “Jay Nolfi Fish Creek Park.”

Although Saturday the Mat-Su Borough will pause to honor Nolfi and to recognize her years of community service, there is still a piece of this celebration that makes the Mat-Su matriarch uncomfortable.

“I think she opposed spending borough money to change the signs at the park,” Assemblyman Ewing said.

Our hats are off to Nolfi and the countless other volunteers who’ve spent decades building the Big Valley we love.