Woodworkingwonder

June 17, 2005

LYNSEA GARRISON/Frontiersman reporter

When Ken Neslund was a young boy, he used his small hands to help his father build and restore houses. He started out by sweeping and pushing a wheelbarrow for his father, and moved on to build everything from the foundations to the roofs of houses.

Now 62, Neslund's hands, bigger and browned with sun, still craft wood, though now he is building rocking horses for his grandchildren.

Over the years, Neslund has built houses, boats and other various wooden things.

He's carved, cut and sanded wood, with the end products always being detailed, hand-crafted creations. He has built kayaks, canoes, skiffs and dinghies and won an award for one of his cedar-strip canoes in the Alaska State Fair. Two of his kayaks still sit in the museum and school district office of Valdez, where he used to teach. His talent may run in the blood, as his father worked as a carpenter.

Neslund was born in Oakland, Calif., in 1942, but his upbringing took place all over the state. His father bought old houses so he could restore and refurbish them. Every time his father bought a house, Neslund and his two brothers and mother would move somewhere new. Neslund moved from place to place in California until he was 19. At that time, he joined the U.S. Navy.

During his two years in the Navy, Neslund attended boot camp and school, where he learned Morse code. He became an RM, radio man.

"It was difficult," he said. "You'd get a headache because you'd have to listen to it for a long time every day."

For the last two of his four years in the Navy, Neslund was stationed in Hawaii, which was part of an area called WestPac. The area of WestPac included Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Neslund wasn't quite sure why he joined the Navy, but thought that his grandfather serving in the Swedish navy may have had something to do with it.

"I also had a brother in the Air Force and another one in the army," he said.

After his time in Hawaii, Neslund married Linda Neslund in 1967. The two met before Neslund joined the Navy, at a church party near Avocado Lake, Calif. Neslund went on to study at Fresno City College in California for two years. In 1969, he moved to Alaska and attended the University of Fairbanks, where he double-majored in education and biology and minored in English. While studying at UAF, Neslund worked at the carpenter shop at the university.

"I did everything there," he said. "Concrete, finishing, whatever they had orders for. I did a little bit of everything."

In 1970, Neslund and his wife had their first of two children, a daughter named Helen. Four years later, they had a son named David. Neslund hand-built and carved a baby cradle out of rough mahogany for David. The cradle still sits in his workshop.

"I don't know how many babies have slept in that," he said. "It's a lot, for sure."

After Neslund graduated from UAF, he built log cabins in Fairbanks. He also built other kinds of houses across the state. Neslund said he worked with a partner for awhile, but mostly did all the building by himself.

In 1975, Neslund moved to Valdez where he continued to build houses in the area until 1981, when he started teaching fifth- and sixth-graders at Herman Hutchens Elementary School in Valdez. Neslund was a science and shop teacher for the school.

During shop classes, he helped his students build canoes, carve diamond willow sticks and complete several other wood-crafting projects. He raffled off his boats to raise money for the shop class every year.

For Neslund's work as a teacher for more than 25 years, he was awarded the Who's Who Among American Teachers award five times.

"What's important about the awards to me is that they mean I made some kind of positive influence on someone's life," he said. "That's the most important thing."

Neslund retired in 1997, and, three years later, he and Linda traveled to Guadalajara and Belize. Neslund said they were supposed to live in Belize, but it was too humid and he missed Alaska.

Finally, in 2001, Neslund moved to Settlers Bay, where he relaxed, worked on his projects, and just "enjoyed retirement." However, three years later he moved again to Sutton and now has a house on 17 Mile Lake.

Lynsea Garrison may be reached at 352-2250.