Circumpolar History
Key figure in Alaska statehood is dead at 93 in Juneau 
(Rachel D'Oro/Anchorage Daily News, 5 October 2010) - George Rogers, an unassuming giant among Alaska's founding fathers, has died at 93. Rogers died at his Juneau home on Sunday, said his daughter, Sidney Fadaoff. He had been ailing for a year but his condition worsened a week ago, she said. His exact cause of death was not disclosed. Rogers was considered an economic architect who helped shape the territory into the nation's 49th state. He was a technical consultant to the Alaska Constitutional Convention that convened in the 1950s before Alaska became a state in 1959. When the convention secretary took sick leave, Rogers stepped in to do that job as well, said Vic Fischer, former Democratic legislator and a convention delegate who became a good friend of Rogers'. "He was totally modest and unassuming," Fischer said. "Even while he was managing the convention, hardly anyone outside the convention was aware of that. That was very typical of his way of functioning." Rogers served as an economic adviser to two territorial governors, developing a revenue system. After statehood, he persuaded lawmakers to pass a bill creating the University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research and was an early member and chairman of the board of trustees for the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., which manages the state's $36 billion oil savings and investment account.
Posted 6 October 2010; 10:19:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, People, United States
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