Reflections of a Reluctant Alaskan

by Lee Jordan

Overview

Twelve times he told the Army to send him any place but Alaska. His final duty assignment: Alaska Communications System. That was 1948. He has been in Alaska ever since, his life devoted to serving his neighbors in the community he calls the "Center of the Universe." Weekly newspaper publisher, mayor, baseball coach, and volunteer, he still serves happily at age 80.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013878662
Publisher:	Samson Press
Publication date:	12/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

ABOUT LEE JORDAN

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, near the beginning of this country's Great Depression, Lee Jordan is the son of teachers of printing. He learned his ABCs via the California type case and received an infusion of printer’s ink in his veins at the age of three, when he smashed his fingers in a printing press in the family in-home print shop.
Enlisting in the Army in 1947, his choice of overseas assignment, announced a dozen times, was “anyplace but Alaska.” Chilled, he disembarked from an Army troop ship in the dead of winter in Whittier, Alaska, assigned to the historic Alaska Communication System. After a waitress asked him why he didn’t eat the peas that came with his dinner, he asked her to marry him.

He has remained in Alaska ever since.

Employed as a printer at the state’s largest newspaper in 1958, Lee set the type
for the iconic “WE’RE IN” headline that announced Alaska’s Statehood. In 1971 he
founded the weekly newspaper where he served as editor and publisher for 30 years.
He was elected as mayor of the Chugiak-Eagle River Borough in 1975 and, unlike many
mayors who have been thrown out of office, he is one of the few whose office was
thrown out from under him. The father of four children, he spent 20 years coaching
baseball, his teams winning four state championships during that time.

Selling the newspaper in 2000, his retirement has been devoted to volunteer
service through non-profit organizations.

Lee is the author of “Starlight Memories,” a collection of favorite columns from his
Chugiak-Eagle River Star newspaper; “The Eagles Return to Yukla Valley,” an update
to “Between Two Rivers,” Marjorie Cochrane's authentic history of Chugiak-Eagle River;
his latest book, “Reflections of a Reluctant Alaskan;” and an unpublished novel.
He and his bride of 60-plus years live in Chugiak, the place he calls the “Center
of the Universe” and where he continues to write.