[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 20, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2024-S2025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REMEMBERING VIRGINIA ``GINNY'' HILL WOOD

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today I wish to honor Virginia 
``Ginny'' Hill Wood. On March 8, 2013, Ginny passed away at the young 
age of 95. Alaska lost a true pioneer and advocate for Alaska's 
wilderness. The Alaskan outdoors was always at the center of her life; 
she guided her last backcountry trip at age 70, cross-country skied 
into her mid-80s, and gardened into her early 90s.
  Born Virginia Hill on October 24, 1917, Ginny grew up in Washington 
and Oregon, where she fell in love with the outdoors. She took her 
first plane ride at the early age of 4 sitting in her father's lap as 
they flew with a barnstorming pilot. Ginny attended Washington State 
University, and in 1938 she took a break when she biked through Europe 
for a year before resuming her studies at the University of Washington. 
She was eager to pursue her passion for flying, and joined the Civilian 
Pilot Training Service in college. During World War II, she enrolled in 
the Women Airforce Service Pilots corps, known as WASP, and ferried all 
types of military planes throughout the Lower 48.
  Her flying and sense of adventure brought her north to Alaska. Ginny 
landed, literally, in Fairbanks, AK at Weeks Field on a very cold New 
Year's Day in 1947--along with fellow pilot and great friend Celia 
Hunter in a second aircraft. Her arrival in Fairbanks when the town was 
just barely out of its rough mining camp days is illustrative of her 
pioneering spirit. People were not flocking to Fairbanks in January of 
1947, and it was especially rare to find a female pilot. She soon began 
flying tourists from Fairbanks to Kotzebue. In the late 1940's Ginny 
took a bicycling tour throughout postwar Europe with Celia Hunter, and 
when asked where she was from, Ginny would say ``Alaska.''
  In 1950, Ginny married Morton ``Woody'' Wood, a forest ranger at Mt. 
McKinley National Park. On a rainy

[[Page S2025]]

day in the summer of 1951, Ginny, Woody, and Celia arrived near the 
northern boundary of Mt. McKinley National Park in search of some land 
to homestead within view of Denali. That fall, Celia Hunter homesteaded 
67 acres. Together, the founders built Camp Denali with locally-
harvested spruce logs and reclaimed materials from the National Park 
Service, often with the help of friends and visitors, who would drop in 
just to look, but would stay to help haul logs. Ginny and Celia ran 
Camp Denali for 25 years, operating the remote tourist resort, forging 
livelihoods out of ingenuity, hospitality, and love of the land.
  Ginny was a committed, persistent, eloquent voice for conservation 
issues in Alaska. She was not afraid to speak on behalf of her values, 
and will be remembered in part as Alaska's pioneer conservationist. Her 
independent lifestyle, from building cabins, flying in the bush, and 
guiding in the Brooks Range and ANWR has inspired and served as an 
example for those around her. Her service as a WASP earned her a 
Congressional Gold Medal. She also received the Alaska-Siberia Lend 
Lease Award for her flying in 2002. I had the honor of presenting Ginny 
her Congressional Gold Medal at her cabin in Fairbanks in 2010 as she 
was unable to attend the ceremony in Washington, DC. Pouring through 
her scrapbook and listening to her stories was a visit I will always 
remember.
  Though many have noted that she served as a role model for other 
women, Ginny stated that ``I did what I wanted to do and I happened to 
be a woman.'' I admired her strong commitment to protecting the beauty 
of Alaska and her zest for life.
  I extend my sincerest condolences to Ginny's remaining family; her 
daughter Romany Wood and son-in-law Carl Rosenberg of San Cristobal, 
NM. Alaska has lost a friend and champion. May she rest in 
peace.

                          ____________________