[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 75 (Wednesday, May 7, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3887-S3888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING LEW WILLIAMS, JR.

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today I wish to talk about one 
of Alaska's greatest newspaper publishers and newsmen. Lew Williams, 
Jr. was a fixture in Ketchikan, AK, one of the State's largest cities 
as I was growing up in nearby Wrangell. Lew unfortunately passed away 
at age 83 this past Saturday, leaving a hole in the fabric of Alaska 
journalism that may never be fully patched.
  Mr. Williams was a successful publisher, no simple accomplishment 
when publishing newspapers in relatively small Alaska towns is 
expensive, newsprint had to come by barge from thousands of miles away, 
and advertisers and readers were sometimes far too scarce. But he never 
scrimped on his product and was fearless in writing strong, clear and 
always factually accurate and well reasoned editorials.
  Lew was a champion in supporting statehood for Alaska back in the 
mid-1950s. Along with Robert Atwood, the former publisher of the 
Anchorage Times, and C.J. Snedden, the long-time publisher of the 
Fairbanks News Miner, Mr. Williams was one of the three pioneer 
publishers and editors in Alaska who did more to establish modern 
Alaska than most community leaders and politicians. Avoiding the trend 
to sell his publication to outside chains, his daughter Tena remains as 
publisher of the newspaper today.
  He also was a leading light in improving journalism in Alaska, being 
the founder in 1965, just 6 years after Statehood, of the Alaska 
Newspaper Publishers' Association, the forerunner to today's Alaska 
Newspaper Association. He served as president of each organization and 
later as director of the regional Allied Daily Newspaper Association.
  Mr. Williams was born in Spokane, WA, in November 1924, the son of 
two reporters, Lew M. Williams, Sr., and Winfred--Dow--Williams, who 
worked for newspapers in Tacoma, WA. The Williams family moved to 
Juneau in 1935, where his father worked for the Juneau Empire. In 1939 
Lew Williams, Sr., purchased the Wrangell Sentinel, starting a history 
of newspaper publishing in Alaska which continues to this day.
  After serving as a sergeant in the paratroopers in World War II, Lew 
Jr. ran the Wrangell Sentinel for the family. He married Dorothy M. 
Baum in July 1954. The couple bought the Petersburg Press and acquired 
the Wrangell Sentinel from Mr. Williams' parents when they retired. 
They later sold the two newspapers and bought the Daily Sitka 
Sentinel--Sitka being the site of Alaska's first pulp mill started 
after WW II--and also bought an interest in the Ketchikan Daily News.
  Ketchikan, a sawmill town in the heart of the Tongass National 
Forest, later saw its own pulp mill develop. The Williams sold the 
Sitka paper to

[[Page S3888]]

concentrate on the Ketchikan paper. But Lew was quick to help 
reestablish small papers in both Petersburg and Wrangell.
  Like many newspaper publishers, Lew Jr. was active in his community. 
He served on the Wrangell School Board, as mayor of Petersburg, and on 
numerous State boards including the Alaska Judicial Council, on the 
Board of Regents of the University of Alaska and as a member of the 
Board of Governors of the Alaska Bar Association. He served on the 
State boards under every State Governor, Democratic or Republican, 
through his retirement in 1999. He also served as the first secretary 
of the Petersburg Fish and Game Advisory Board just after statehood, 
helping to foster the State's strong fisheries ethics that helped 
salmon to recover from the catch disasters of the 1950s to the all-time 
records for salmon harvest currently being produced in Alaska.
  Besides government positions, Mr. Williams was a lifetime member of 
the Petersburg Elks Lodge 1615, the American Legion, the Pioneers of 
Alaska, a past president of Rotary, and for 29 years was an adult 
leader in the Boy Scout program. He also was active in the Democratic 
Party and was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities by the 
University of Alaska Southeast. He also was the founder of the regional 
Southeast Conference and was named Citizen of the Year by both the 
Alaska State Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of 
Commerce in the early 1980s. He won statewide recognition as the 
Alaskan of the Year in 1991.
  But this speech is not meant as an obituary, but as a way for me to 
state my deepest appreciation for a man who epitomized Alaska during 
the past 70 years. He was a man who loved the beauty of Alaska, 
enjoying hunting and fishing on the nearby Stikine River. He also 
pushed for the development of Alaska from its timber industry in the 
southeast to the fishing industry around the State. He was a strong 
voice in favor of the aquaculture movement in the 1970s that helped the 
State preserve and grow its wild salmon populations. He also was a 
tireless supporter of environmentally sensitive oil and gas 
development, first in Cook Inlet and later in northern Alaska. Lew, 
having lived in the grinding poverty of Alaska long before statehood, 
always understood that Alaskans needed and still need good jobs and a 
strong economy so that the State can develop an economy strong enough 
to support good educational institutions, community infrastructure and 
allow the development of good health care and social service programs. 
He knew that Alaskans could grow the economy and protect our wildlife 
and environment. He never set up an artificial confrontation between 
the two goals.

  After his retirement, Lew wrote with the late Evangeline Atwood, the 
book ``Bent Pins to Chains: Alaska and its Newspapers.'' The 2006 book 
is a lively history of Alaska as described through the development of 
its newspaper industry. The book, better than most, tells the tales of 
life in both the territory and State of Alaska as seen through 
reporters, editors and publishers. Lew, undoubtedly wrote the book as a 
way of honoring the many talented writers and editors that have 
practiced in Alaska over the past 49 years since statehood, many of 
them reporters he helped recruit out of journalism schools, and helped 
mentor and train once they arrived.
  As his obituary earlier this week in the Ketchikan Daily News said, 
``He believed the editorial was the heart and strength of any 
newspaper. He editorialized for Alaska State, for the creation of the 
state ferry system, for the trans-Alaska pipeline, for power 
development, in support of the timber and fishing industries, and for 
airports, harbors and roads.''
  Alaskans have seen countless columns and editorials explaining to 
Americans--who never wanted to really understand the issue--why it was 
fully proper for some of Alaska's Federal highway funds to go for 
construction of a bridge from downtown Ketchikan to the city's airport, 
so that those who needed to fly out of the State's fifth largest city 
could actually get to their flights when high winds or low tides 
rendered the ferry system to the airport inoperative. For those who 
needed to catch emergency medivac flights, a bridge was no expensive 
trinket, but a life-saving link to the outside world. Lew always 
championed Alaska.
  I can only say to his wife Dorothy, to his daughters Christena--Tena 
for short--and Kathryn, his son Lew III, and his daughter-in-law Vicki, 
and granddaughters Kristie, Jodi, and Melissa Williams, and great-
grandson Milan Browne, all of Ketchikan; and his sisters: Susan 
Pagenkopf of Juneau and Jane Ferguson of California, how much he will 
be missed. Those in public life will miss his balanced and fair 
editorials, his prodding and his support. We will miss his ethics and 
deep-seated sense of fair-play and ethics. And we will miss his wise 
counsel and thoughtfulness and compassion.
  Alaska, and the Nation, has lost a great citizen. Goodbye Lew, we 
will never forget you.

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