Robert Folz

Robert “Bob” Folz, 81, passed away from complications after heart surgery on Sept. 18. He was born in Tomahawk, Wis., on Sept. 14, 1928, the third son of Joseph and Clara Folz.

Bob entered the Navy at the end of World War II and served through the Korean War as a boatswain’s mate. He was in the Navy for almost 10 years and saw many foreign ports.

While in the service, Bob met and married Darlene with whom he had three children, John, Wendy and Dana. After leaving the service he worked as a carpenter and millwright in Washington and Oregon. In June, 1973, he moved to Alaska where he finally felt he’d found his home. His first work was on the Healy Hotel for the Alaska Railroad.

In 1974, Bob’s first Forty-Mile area winter was spent at Mile 72 on the Taylor Highway where he ran a trap line down the South Fork and the Walker Fork.

Camping in Clam Gulch in the summer he met Sally Young and they were soon a couple. They spent the next eight years at Boundary in the winter, living in a cabin on a gold mine running dog teams to gather wood and get the mail once a week, and camping on the beach at Ninilchik and Kasilof in the summer.

Doing assessment work for Bob McGrane of Anchorage’s McGrane Jewelers, resulted in Bob learning to make gold jewelry. During the years at Boundary and Ninilchik, Bob made hundreds of gold nugget earrings, bracelets and necklaces which they sold to lodges all along the highway. He also sold many to the hundreds of tourists he met fishing and clamming on the beaches of Ninilchik.

Fishing for red salmon from the beach at Ninilchik and clamming at Clam Gulch were two of his favorite activities. Smoking and canning these took place right on the beach, too. The dogs were trained to pack and brought the fish back to the camp. Wolfie, Bob’s supposedly wolf-hybrid was his constant companion. Bob was well-known for his special hat with its “I am not a tourist” button.

In the winter Bob trapped the Forty-Mile Country between Boundary and the Ladue on foot, bringing home many lynx, marten and fox and the occasional wolf and wolverine.

Bob was a perfectionist in everything he did, especially his carpentry and his animal skinning. His skins were perfect and always brought top price in Hudson Bay auctions.

Bob was also a crack shot. When he lived in Washington/Oregon, he did competition shooting. He was an expert marksman. He was an avid hunter all his life. While living in Boundary, he once used his .44 to shoot down the top of a tree to get the perfect Christmas tree.

Bob and Sally moved to Tok in 1983 and Bob spent the rest of his life in Tok, and he still kept going to the Kenai for fishing and clamming during the summers.

He spent one summer working for brother Joe at his gold mine near Wild Lake north of Bettles. His last carpentry work was building his sister’s house in Wasilla. His last employment was on the Valdez oil spill where he was often the only member of a team returning to work after a break. He showed up in several news footage pieces on the spill and was often shown in the Anchorage paper during the Fur Rondy and appeared in the Fur Rondy program booklet wearing his fur hats.

He will be remembered by many children who approached “Santa” with his white hair and beard, merry smile, and sparkling eyes that made him look so much like the old gent.

He loved to travel to visit family and friends, and you never knew when he was coming until you saw his red truck pull into the driveway with his faithful, and spoiled, companion “Babe.”

Bob had a great sense of humor and many were caught in his pranks and jokes. He was a master of one-liners and his words of “wisdom” made many laugh until they cried.

Bob will always be in the minds and hearts of his family and all his friends. He is greatly loved and missed by all who knew him.

Bob is survived by son John Folz, wife Bernie of Washington; daughter Wendy Olson, husband Jon of Oregon; and daughter Dana Folz-Edwards, husband Dwayne of Washington. He had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is also survived by sister Nola Bragg of Wasilla and brother Richard Folz of Anchorage, special nephew Earl (Runt) Bragg of Wasilla, and many other nieces and nephews.

Arrangements were with Valley Funeral Home and Crematory in Wasilla.