Valley man named to University of Maine Hall of Fame

Dec. 31, 2006

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

PALMER - Palmer's Charlie Akers is well-known in the Valley for being a longtime area school principal, bush pilot and fireman. But before he moved to Palmer in the mid-1960s, Akers' greatest claim to fame was as a champion skier and biathlete who once represented the United States in the Olympics.

Akers grew up in a skiing family in Maine, where he began his career in cross-country skiing as a high school champion in Andover. He took naturally to the sport, having begun skiing at a very early age.

&#8220I started when I was just a little guy, about as soon as I could walk,” Akers said.

In 1957, Akers moved to the University of Maine, where he was among the dominant skiers in the country, bringing home NCAA championships in 1959 and 1961.

For his accomplishments at the university, Akers was inducted in October into the Black Bears' athletic Hall of Fame. Getting inducted into the hall, Akers said, has brought back a lot of good memories from his glory days as a champion skier.

&#8220It was kind of nice to refresh some of the old memories,” he said of the honor.

After winning his second NCAA title, Akers was recruited into the Army, which as the time was beginning to build that country's first biathlon teams. Although he'd never participated in the sport, Akers immediately took to the sport.

&#8220I had never done it,” he said. &#8220I'd done a lot of shooting, hunting, but marksmanship is a totally different style of shooting.”

The Army's biathlon training program at the time was located at Fort Richardson, where Akers made his home for the next three years while training for the 1964 Olympic team.

Akers said it took him a while to get used to his new sport.

&#8220It took me three years before I got the skiing and shooting together,” he said.

Biathlon is much different from cross country, he said, and learning to shoot a rifle after skiing a couple miles can be a daunting task.

&#8220It's more mental than anything else,” he said. &#8220That's the biggest part of it.”

By the time the 1964 Olympics rolled around, Akers said he'd pretty much figured out biathlon. That year, he traveled to Innsbruck, Austria with the rest of the team to compete in his first Olympics.

Akers placed 16th at the Games, the top finish for an American. His memories of that experience, however, have little to do with the competition and more to do with the camaraderie fostered by the Olympic spirit.

&#8220I met so many wonderful people,” he said. &#8220Everywhere we went the other athletes were just great.”

Akers recalled that he'd been led to believe that Soviet athletes were the cold, unfeeling robots portrayed by Cold War-era propaganda. Once he met the Soviets, however, he found the opposite to be true.

&#8220Those guys were just like us,” he remembered. &#8220They were great people.”

He retired from the school district in 1986 in order to have fun &#8220before I got too old to do what I wanted.”

These days he rarely gets back on his cross country skis. Instead, he said he fills his time golfing, flying, traveling with his wife, Linda, and caring for the half-dozen purebred Newfoundland dogs that roam the property the couple has lived on for 29 years at the base of Lazy Mountain. The couple raised two children in the Valley, Charlie Jr. and Kim, both of whom still live in Alaska.

Although his athletic days are largely behind him, however, Akers said he still looks back fondly on the days when he was among the fastest people on two skis in the world.

&#8220I have so many wonderful memories,” he said. &#8220It was just a great experience.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com.