J. Clifton Eller

James Clifton Eller, 87, passed away peacefully at his home in Wasilla, Alaska on March 9, 2017. Clif was born July 23, 1929 in Robbinsville, North Carolina, the eldest son of Hobart Hobson and Fannie Elizabeth (Jones) Eller.

He joined the US Army shortly after high school and served for three years in Germany as a communications technician. After his time in the service, Clif worked and attended college in Fresno, California, until he was offered a job in Alaska with ITT which paid more than his professors were making. Being an enterprising young man, he decided to take the job and move north to work on the Distant Early Warning (DEW Line) system being set up during the Cold War. He worked mainly in the Yukon River village of Tanana, where he met Paula E. Rothbauer, an adventurous young nurse from Calgary, Alberta, who would become his wife on December 31, 1959.

Clif and Paula raised their four children in Tanana. They worked hard to improve life for their family and the community. They created Yukon Telephone Company in 1960, which brought local phone service to the village for the first time. Six years later Clif purchased the town’s power plant and created Tanana Power Company. The telephone company expanded to include the communities of Ruby and Whittier in the 1980s. With very little capital or equipment and even less experience, he and Paula became communications pioneers bringing modern technology to rural Alaska.

Clif loved being a pilot, and owned several airplanes throughout his adult life. He was an avid reader, enjoyed playing guitar and listening to bluegrass music. He also enjoyed games and passed many hours playing chess and cribbage with his family. Although he lived in Alaska for many years, the family farm in Atoah in the hills of North Carolina remained dear to his heart. He loved going “home” twice a year. He was an easygoing man, preferred to listen rather than speak, and he will be remembered fondly and missed by many.

Clif is survived by Paula, his wife of 57 years, and his three children, Elizabeth (Larry) Geissinger of Zionsville, PA; Donald (Oy) Eller of Palmer; and Ralph (Shelly) Eller of Wasilla, as well as eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, sisters Evelyn Buchanan and Pauline Anderson, brother Wayman (Dewey) Eller, his son James, and two infant children.

Clif was raised in the Free Will Baptist faith. In his later years, he and his wife attended Lazy Mountain Bible Church in Palmer. He will be cremated and his remains will be placed at the Metz Cemetery in Robbinsville, NC. A celebration of life will follow. Memorial donations in memory of Cl if may be made to Salvation Army, American Foundation for the Blind, or the Graham County, North Carolina EMS.