Kenneth Taylor Hubbard

Kenneth Taylor Hubbard, long-time Alaska resident and pioneer, died May 28, 2020 in Anchorage. He was 94.

Ken was born in Central, Arizona on October 15, 1925 to Emery B. and Audrey Taylor Hubbard. Upon graduating from high school, he entered the Army, 86th Infantry Blackhawks near the end of World War II. As a Blackhawk, Ken saw rough combat, mopping up after the Battle of the Bulge. He crossed France on foot and “invaded” Germany, running single-file across a pontoon bridge with his unit, leading to near-immediate surrender of the Germans to the fearsome Blackhawks. Ken was wounded by sniper fire when his unit was pinned down in a building, earning him a Purple Heart.

Following VE Day, Ken returned Stateside, before being shipped to the Pacific Theatre, where war still raged. By the time he arrived in the Philippines, the war was over. As a competitive boxer in the Army, Ken was one fight short of the U.S. Army Pacific Theatre Boxing Championship when his enlistment was up. More than a million U.S. soldiers were stuck in the Philippines with no war to fight, and discharge papers in hand. The Navy refused to transport large numbers of civilians back to the U. S., so Ken reenlisted in the Army for a year so he could hitch a ride home on a troop ship.

In the early 1950s, Ken traveled the Alaska Highway for the first time in search of adventure. He met elementary school teacher Margaret “Peg” Bailey at an Anchorage square dance in 1954. They were married in September 1955, and Ken took on the raising of her son, Allen M. Bailey, from her first marriage. At the time, he was a truck driver for Pepsi Cola. In early 1956, Ken and Peg won a lottery for the right to apply to obtain a cabin site under the U.S. Homestead Act, requiring them to build a cabin, dock and outhouse before they could own the property across Big Lake. He, Peg and young Allen spent a couple of years building a single-room log cabin on top of a hill overlooking the lake, towing an entire raft of raw logs across the lake behind a dory, with Peg sitting on the raft. The family spent decades enjoying the cabin across Big Lake in the summer sun and rain, as well as skiing across the frozen lake in the winter. Ken’s beloved cabin was incinerated in the huge 1996 Miller’s Reach forest fire.

In early 1958, when Ken was working for Anchorage Sand & Gravel, Heidi Maureen Hubbard was born, and Ken and Peg began building a house in College Park in Anchorage. Laurie Ann Hubbard was born in late 1959. On March 27, 1964, as Ken drove from Anchorage to Soldotna, where he owned his own building business, The Y Supply, the Great Earthquake hit. Twenty-two bridges collapsed between Anchorage and Soldotna, stranding Ken for three days at a highway maintenance station near Summit, leaving his family wondering if he was still alive.

In 1968, Ken, Peg, Heidi and Laurie moved to Ferndale, Washington, where Ken finished his Bachelor’s Degree in History, graduating from Western Washington University in Bellingham in 1969. They returned to Anchorage in 1970, where Ken went to work for Alaska Brick Company and began building a house in Scenic Park. In true pioneer style, he moved the family in during the bitter cold of January 1971 when the walls had no sheetrock, the water was not yet running, and a string of bare lightbulbs was strung across the upper floor from the front of the house to the back. In 1976, Ken left Alaska Brick Company to build an addition to the house, and in 1977 he went to work as an appraiser for the Municipality of Anchorage.

In 1978, Ken and Peg separated and later divorced. Ken soon met Alma Joyce Lilly, and they married in March 1981. He moved to Palmer and commuted to work in Anchorage until his retirement in the 1990s. He drove a Meals On Wheels truck in Palmer for a while, and he and Joyce often spent part of the winter in Arizona. His step-daughter Barbara Lilly McGee devoted herself to his care during the last years of his life, enabling him to age in comfort at home.

Ken was preceded in death by his wife Joyce, his parents, and his brothers Emery “Mac”, Raymond “Rex”, Joseph “Morgan”, Virgil Gilmer, and sister Erma Charlene Paxton. Also preceding Ken in death was his young grandson, Shawn Orr.

He is survived by daughters Heidi (Charles “Chuck”) Smithson, Laurie (Bruce) Hendricks, step-son Allen M. (Marilyn) Bailey, and step-daughter Barbara McGee. Also mourning his loss are grandchildren Stephanie Smithson Johnson, Rachel Smithson, Rory Cameron Hendricks, Joshua Orr, as well as great-grandchildren Jesse, Alex and Isabella McGee, and 22 nieces and nephews.

A special memorial will be held for Ken this summer when people may gather more freely. A burial with military honors at the National Cemetery on Fort Richardson will be on Thursday, July 29, 2021 at 2:30pm.