[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1781-S1782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO ROD BOYCE

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is not Thursday yet, but it is almost 
Thursday, and that is when I love to come down to the floor of the U.S. 
Senate to recognize an Alaskan who is doing something great for our 
State. And as many know here, we call this person our Alaskan of the 
Week.
  Now, it is one of my favorite times of the week. I know that a couple 
of Hill watchers like it too. I want to give a shout-out to Chris 
Cioffi from Roll Call. He actually did a piece in Roll Call today about 
the ``Alaskan of the Week'' series. So thank you, Chris. I hope you are 
watching. It is a little late, and it is not Thursday. But anyway, I 
appreciate the shout-out in your series today.
  I am going to get to the punch. Our Alaskan of the Week tonight, this 
week, is Rod Boyce, a friend of mine, a former longtime editor of one 
of my favorite--actually, it is my favorite newspaper in Alaska, the 
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. He clearly is deserving of this great, 
important award.
  But before I talk about Rod, let me give you a little update about 
what is going on in the State. First, some good news, something we are 
all very proud of in Alaska. The economy is hurting; we are not proud 
of that. But in terms of the pandemic, the health elements, our State 
continues to be the No. 1 State vaccinated per capita of any State in 
the country. This is a minimiracle, by the way, because we are a really 
big State, and we are really spread out, a really small population. And 
yet, the Federal Government, Tribal healthcare system, VA, State of 
Alaska, everybody coming together is making it happen.
  About 3 weeks ago, we announced that anyone over 16 could get a 
vaccine. And some communities are hitting 60, 70 percent vaccinated 
already in Alaska. Really important. We are opening up. If you are 
watching, and you don't live in Alaska, come visit. It is going to be 
safe, but we are very proud of that accomplishment because it has taken 
a lot of work.
  Of course, it is cold in Alaska, but the Sun has been shining. The 
snow has been amazing. We have had a lot of it recently. The spirits 
are up. We have an Iditarod winner. Congratulations to Dallas Seavey on 
your fifth Iditarod win. Incredible, incredible.
  You know, some may take issue with the claim that Alaska is the most 
unique State in the Union, but consider this: Every year, teams of 
mushers and their dogs barrel hundreds of miles across the State toward 
the city of Nome, in some of the harshest conditions, rugged conditions 
on the planet Earth.
  Certainly, these are the kind of events that we think make Alaska 
unique and a big sense of community. I have said it before: Alaska 
isn't always the easiest place to live. It is far from the lower 48. 
The weather can be extreme, very tough. But as a result, the people and 
communities bond, and they work together, particularly in some of our 
most remote communities. We are one big community in the great State of 
Alaska, as my colleague from Nebraska knows.
  Every community in Alaska, in America, needs to be able to share 
reliable, credible information. On that topic, of course, there has 
been a lot of negative attention in the past couple of years paid to 
some in the national media, particularly in the last few years. But the 
vital role, the vital role of local journalism and how that role that 
plays in different communities across our country, in my view, hasn't 
had nearly enough attention, and it is a positive role, our local 
reporters.
  So our Alaskan of the Week, Rod Boyce, who, until just a few weeks 
ago was the longtime editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, spent 
nearly his entire career, 35 years, ensuring that Alaskans stayed 
connected through local news.
  Now, Rod himself hasn't made huge headlines in the State. As a matter 
of fact, that is one of the reasons for the Alaskan of the Week, to do 
a shout-out to someone wh has not gotten a lot of recognition. The only 
time Rod has gotten a lot of headlines was one instance of a mushing 
mishap. I am going to talk briefly about that. But as an old-school 
newsman, he liked to stay behind the headlines, behind the scenes.

  But he has been behind the scenes of so many of those headlines in 
our State. For years, he worked tirelessly--first at papers across the 
State and then for 27 years at the News-Miner--to keep the great 
community of Fairbanks and North Pole, AK, the interior part of our 
State, connected and informed.
  So here is a little bit about Rod. Born in London, England--I have 
known Rod for many years, but I did not know that fact. Born in London, 
England, his family moved to Southern California in the 1960s. His 
father designed and engineered refineries. And Rod's father and his 
wife--Rod's mom--raised both him and his sister.
  He wasn't sure what he wanted to do in life, but he was inspired by a 
trip he took to England early in his college career, came back with a 
camera that he actually found on a bench in the Heathrow Airport. It is 
an interesting detail. And he found his calling in journalism. He was 
the editor of the school newspaper at Humboldt State University and did 
some stints at small papers, landed at the Sacramento Union--the oldest 
paper in the West, by the way--one that Mark Twain used to write for. 
It was his first experience with a good old-fashioned newspaper war. 
The younger, afternoon paper, the Sacramento Bee, decided to take on 
the establishment Sacramento Union. Eventually, the Bee won. But by 
then, Rod had made his way to the great State of Alaska to enter 
another, even bigger newspaper war: the Anchorage Times, the 
established paper, versus the upstart Anchorage Daily News.
  Any person in news in Alaska who has been around a while will talk 
about that newspaper war with something of awe in their voice. Both 
papers then were fully staffed up, at least 30 reporters each, bureaus 
all across the State, even bureaus here in DC, pre-social media days, 
pre-Twitter days. Reporters spent their days on the streets, knocking 
on doors, stealing each other's scoops. It was called shoe leather 
reporting, and some great journalism in Alaska emerged.
  Eventually, the upstart, the young Anchorage Daily News--still 
around--won the war. So Rod was on the losing team. He began to work 
for a small chain of six or seven rural papers called Alaska 
Newspapers, Inc. It was here that Rod got his first glimpse of rural 
Alaska. He learned about fisheries issues, ate his first piece of 
muktuk. That is whale blubber. He experienced the beauty and became 
aware of the heartbreak of rural Alaska, the true spiritual soul of our 
State, one of the spiritual souls of America, I would argue.
  After a few years with Alaska newspapers, he took the job that he has 
been so good at for almost three decades, editor of the Fairbanks Daily 
News-Miner, which is my wonderful wife Julie's hometown. It is the 
first city I lived in with Julie and our brandnew daughter of ours, 
Meghan, and, of course, I can still consider the News-Miner to be my 
hometown newspaper.
  As I mentioned, Rod was an editor for 27 years for this great 
interior Alaska paper. The News-Miner is small but mighty in Alaska, 
punching way above its weight, winning numerous journalism awards, 
breaking important stories on health crises, injustice, scandals, 
economic opportunities, everyday stories about everyday people, the 
kind of stories that draw us together as communities.
  As Rod said, ``It's not just national journalism that matters. Local 
journalism matters [too].''
  To that end, it was his policy, until he just retired a couple of 
weeks ago, to have at least 95 percent of the front page of the News-
Miner devoted to local news. That is a great idea.
  So many Alaskans have interests, hobbies, lifestyles that many here 
in the lower 48 just don't understand, Rod included. For many years, he 
spent his days in the newsroom and his evenings and weekends mushing 
dogs. And he still mushes. He loves it. It is a family affair. He and 
his wife Julie used to put their daughter, Edie, in a sled when she was 
just in diapers. And Edie is still doing it. The most dogs they have 
ever

[[Page S1782]]

had now is 27. It is down to 18. This is hard work. It is tons of work. 
My wife Julie and her family also raised sled dogs. It is really hard 
work, particularly in the cold, interior Alaska winters. And it is also 
dangerous, as Rod can attest.
  In 2000, when competing for the first time in the 200-mile Tustumena 
200 Sled Dog Race on the Kenai Peninsula, he took a wrong turn. It was 
snowing hard. It was difficult to see. The trail got obliterated. And 
he couldn't figure out how to get back on the trail. So he staked his 
dogs and hunkered down on a ridge to build camp. He had some candy, 
Reese's Pieces, dried lamb for the dogs. He had a cooker, thermos, some 
fuel, some twigs. He had bunny boots, fortunately, but not a parka.
  He spent his days exploring, going as far as he dared to try to find 
the trail at night. At night, he could hear the helicopters above, 
looking for Rod, but they couldn't see him through the cloud cover.
  What was going on turned out to be one of the largest land search and 
rescue missions in Alaska history, trying to find Rod Boyce, the 
intrepid editor of the News-Miner. But he didn't know that. He just 
knew that his days were ticking away. Rod's wife Julie was worried 
sick, of course, but kept it together throughout. On the sixth day--
sixth day--almost a week, when the sky cleared, he headed out again and 
a snow machine came his way. ``I think I am the guy you're looking 
for,'' he told the driver, Ron Poston. Ron gave him a candy bar and a 
ride to safety.

  That night, he and his wife celebrated with a beer and a 
cheeseburger. His feet were in bad shape, but otherwise he was 
unharmed. When he made it back to the newsroom, his fellow reporters 
put up markers that led from his parking space into the building in 
case he got lost again. He thought it was pretty funny.
  On January 22, Rod Boyce left the News-Miner to take a job as a 
science writer and public information officer at the very cool and 
esteemed Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 
He spends his days now writing about Tsunamis and the skies and the 
heavens. He said:

       It is a nerd's dream . . . I had a good 35-year run in 
     newspapers and was very fortunate to experience the things 
     that I did and interact with all sorts of public officials 
     and regular folks on the street. I got to see them at their 
     highs and lows, their tragedies and their happiest moments.

  He still has hopes for local news. ``A local news outlet can tie a 
local community together and that is super important. I hope that never 
changes,'' said Rod.
  Me, too, Rod. Here is to local journalism. Here is to the mighty 
Fairbanks News-Miner, and here is to Rod Boyce. Thank you for being the 
guy behind the headlines all these many years. Thank you for keeping 
our communities and interior connected, and congratulations on perhaps 
one of the biggest awards you have ever received, our Alaskan of the 
Week.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). The majority leader.

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