Robert Gillam Dies at 72 Was Foe of Pebble Mine

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Wednesday, 19 September 2018 13:22

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Robert Gillam

Born on the banks of the Chena River in Fairbanks July 7, 1946, entrepreneur Robert Byron Gillam passed away September 12 on a beautiful autumn afternoon in Anchorage, surrounded by family. He was 72.
Bob moved to Anchorage before statehood, attending local schools. At one time he was the Alaska Soap Box Derby champion. At West High School, Bob was rumored to have ridden his motorcycle down a hallway and to have thrown cherry bombs into school toilets. But as a bad boy gone good, Bob also participated in the downhill ski team, played the clarinet and won a ribbon at the science fair for his working Teslacoil.
Bob graduated with a degree in economics from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania; and received his MBA in one year from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. Returning to Anchorage in the late 1960’s, Bob became a broker for Foster and Marshall. During that time, he earned his private pilot’s license and fished on the Kenai River where he was heard to exclaim, “You don’t go fishing to catch fish.”
During the early 1990s, Bob sold his cobalt blue Jaguar to start McKinley Capital Management which grew to be a global asset management firm strategically located in Anchorage for conducting international business. He used to point out that when it was lunch time in Anchorage it was dinner time on Wall Street and breakfast time in Tokyo, an advantageous position for stock trading, Bob’s passion.
Bob devoted considerable resources to helping save Bristol Bay salmon from “the wrong mine in the wrong place.” The protective salmon initiative he fostered won every precinct in Alaska.
He also was a generous philanthropist who funded many causes, especially food for the hungry and scholarships for struggling college students. Bob often donated anonymously, caring more about the cause than the recognition.
In addition to his family, the stock market and great red wine, Bob loved flying, hunting, fishing and adventure. He shot deer in Alaska, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota; lions and Cape Buffalo in Africa; and bears in Alaska, Canada and Russia. He fished not only throughout Alaska, but also in New Zealand, Iceland, Scotland, Russia, the Bahamas and western states.
He was a man of many interests including Biblical and European history, Thermopylae Pass, birds of Alaska, medical science and space travel.
Bob achieved great success in his life through dedication and hard work, but he always remembered his modest beginnings. He had a sense of humor, and was a gifted joke and story teller.
Bob is survived by his wife, Mary Lou Couch Gillam; his five children and their families, Robert Arthur Gillam (Stacia and sons Benjamin and Nicholas), Vicki Gillam Norris (Trevor and sons Nash and Brock), John Clark Gillam (Katie), Mary Roxanne Gillam (fiancé Arne Krogh), Frank Hunter Gillam; and siblings Linda Black, Kathy Wagner, and Dick Gillam.
Services will be held at the Hotel Captain Cook 2 p.m. September 23. A private burial will be held later. Arrangements are by Janssen Funeral Homes, Inc.

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