[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1703-S1704]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING KATHLEEN ``MIKE'' DALTON

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, she was a mentor, communicator, 
historian, volunteer, role model, and a friend with an incredible 
memory of Alaska history, a journalist, public servant, a Republican, a 
woman who had strong opinions and was not afraid to express them, a 
pillar of the community, a legend.
  This weekend, the Pioneers of Alaska Fairbanks Igloo will remember 
Kathleen ``Mike'' Dalton who passed in January at the age of 93. I rise 
today to speak in memory of my friend, this woman named Mike, an oracle 
of Alaska history and at the same time a fixture of Alaska's political 
history.
  So how does a girl get the name Mike? Mike was born to an Irish 
father who anticipated that he would have two children. One named 
Patricia, the other named Mike. Problem is that Mike's father had 
little control of the gender of his children. Mike's sister, the first 
of the children, was named Patricia. The second, who turned out to be a 
girl as well, was named Kathleen, but that stubborn Irish father would 
have nothing of it. Kathleen was ``Mike'' from the very beginning.
  Mike grew up in Arizona. Her father worked on the Navajo Reservation 
as a carpenter and construction worker. She moved to Tucson to attend 
Catholic school at age 10 and graduated with a degree in English from 
Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She followed a friend and 
schoolmate to Alaska, and as they say, the rest is history.
  Mike acclimated well to the north and was quickly introduced to the 
sport of dog mushing. She met Jim Dalton, the son of a pioneer and 
Klondike gold rush legend and married him in 1950. Jim was an engineer 
who played a major role in development of the naval petroleum reserve 
on Alaska's North Slope. Jim and Mike lived in Barrow, now the 
community known as Utqiagvik, and had two children. They bought 30 
acres in Fairbanks and built a loghouse. Jim continued to work on the 
North Slope. Mike stayed in Fairbanks to raise the children, but ever 
ingenious, she found ways to hitch a ride to see Jim. She made 12 trips 
above the Arctic Circle during the winter of 1968-1969.
  Mike chose to live a full life in Fairbanks. She was a reporter for 
the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, writing the first draft of Alaska's 
post-Statehood history. She covered all of the big events: the 1964 
earthquake, the 1967 Fairbanks flood, the discovery of oil at Prudhoe 
Bay, and the construction of a 500-mile haul road that made oil 
production possible. That road is today known as the Dalton Highway, in 
acknowledgment of Jim Dalton's pioneering work on the North Slope. Jim 
died in 1977.
  While Mike's writing endeared her to Alaskans, her greater 
contribution may be her decision to rescue all of the News-Miner's 
World War II era photo archives from a dumpster, after an editor new to 
Alaska, determined that they lacked historic value. Waiting until dark, 
she dove in, dusted the photos off, and preserved them.
  She was recruited to stuff envelopes and lick stamps for Republican 
candidates, the stepping stone to a half century's leadership in the 
Fairbanks Republican Women's Club. Her email list was envied by all.
  In 1964, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, a regional government for 
interior Alaska, was formed. Mike ran for a seat on the borough 
assembly, which is the borough's legislative body. She was the top vote 
getter. Turning to a career in government, Mike managed Senator Ted 
Stevens' interior Alaska field office from 1971-1978. She worked for 
another legend, who recently passed, Alaska State Senator Jack Coghill, 
and during the administration of Governor Jay Hammond, she relocated to 
Washington, DC, to manage Alaska's Washington office.
  Returning to Alaska, she devoted her life to community service. In 
1991, she worked for the city of Unalaska and helped organize the 50th 
commemoration of the Japanese occupation of the Aleutians. She helped 
organize the first American delegation visit to the Russian Far East 
and the Kamchatka Peninsula, hoping to improve ties between Russia and 
Alaska as the USSR came apart. Active in the Pioneers of Alaska, Mike 
recorded oral histories of Alaska's pioneers for the University of 
Alaska archives. She repatriated 24 paintings by Alaska's most famous 
artist, Sydney Laurence, back to Alaska. She was active in the campaign 
to settle Alaska Native land claims and was one of the first non-
Natives to be honored by the Fairbanks Native Association.
  Mike was about service to others, not glory to herself. She would 
drive 50 miles out of town to give a ride to a sourdough who needed it, 
deliver her prized oatmeal cookies to the seniors, chase after a dog 
gone astray. She went out to fix the culverts that collapsed under the 
weight of Alaska winter to prevent spring floods, and she raised money 
for the hospital. She was generous to newcomers who experienced 
difficulties in acclimating and a mentor to young women.
  Upon Mike's induction to the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2016, it 
was

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remembered that Mike refused to attend an event honoring her 90th 
birthday because she was so adamantly opposed to self-aggrandizement.
  The Alaska Women's Hall of Fame recognized Mike as a ``seemingly 
tireless activist whose efforts have made waves since her arrival in 
Alaska from Arizona in 1949 . . . As for Fairbanks, her home base for 
more than half a century Mike played a major part in shaping its 
social, political and economic future, as well as the state, while 
preserving a valuable part of our history.''
  I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to share a brief glimpse 
into the extraordinary life of Mike Dalton in the U.S. Senate 
today.

                          ____________________