LAWRENCE L. THOMPSON

Longtime Alaska resident Larry Lavon Thompson, 69, died at his home in Big Lake on March 20, 2004, of lung cancer.

At his request he was cremated and his ashes will be split with part to be with his wife in Arizona and the rest to be spread along the Iditarod Trail. There will be a celebration of his life and a potluck dinner at the Hangar Lounge in Big Lake on April 17, starting at 3 p.m. Friends are invited to bring a favorite casserole or food dish and to share the many memories we all have of him.

Mr. Thompson was born May 28, 1934, in Arizona. In 1960, he and his wife Bert drove the Alcan Highway with their four children, Varona, Larry, Mike and Ralph, and made Alaska their home until the time of his death.

He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers, and worked for City Electric of Anchorage for a number of years. He was an avid pilot and was well known for his piloting skills throughout the state. He started his own air taxi service, Quality Aircraft, and operated an airplane repair shop on Merrill Field until moving to Kaltag with his wife. He bought fish on the Yukon River and flew them to the canneries. It was during this time he became interested in flying for the Iditarod, and in the early years he was the "Iditarod Air Force." At the 1979 musher's banquet in Nome he was presented with a huge trophy proclaiming him the "World's Greatest Pilot." He was named the Honorary First Musher of the Junior Iditarod in 2004.

He was preceded in death by his wife Roberta Thompson; father Lawrence W. Packer; mother Guenna Thompson; and brother Gene Thompson.

He is survived by his daughter Varona Thompson of Big Lake; sons Larry Thompson of Anchorage, Mike Thompson of Wasilla, and Ralph Thompson of Washington state; sisters Joyce Olsen of Arizona and Janice Sorenson of Colorado; daughter-in-law Somona Greenway and her children Julianna and Jordon Getz of Wasilla; and niece Guenna Rodriguez and her three children, of Oregon.

Arrangements were made by Valley Funeral Home & Crematory of Wasilla.