FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Trail to be Renamed for Rep. Grussendorf

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

Gov. Bill Walker has announced the Old Sitka State Historical Park’s Forest and Muskeg Trail will be renamed after the late Ben Grussendorf, an outdoorsman who represented Sitka in the state House of Representatives for 20 years, three terms as speaker.

A ceremony to mark the renaming of the trail is tentatively planned for June, officials said.

 

Ben Grussendorf (Sentinel file Photo by James Poulson)

In a March 10 letter to Marge Ward, chair of the Sitka State Parks Citizens Advisory Board, Walker said the Department of Natural Resources has formally adopted the new name.

“We cannot think of a better way to recognize all the time and energy that Mr. Grussendorf put into making Alaska a better place than renaming the trail in his honor,” Walker said in the letter. “It is especially fitting in light of his commitment to Alaska State Parks and his efforts to enhance the state’s ability to provide outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of the public.”

The legislator’s widow, Karen Grussendorf, said the new name is appropriate given her husband’s passion for the outdoors, including hiking with his dogs and family, hunting, fishing, boating and exploring.

“He was definitely an outdoorsman,” she said. “He loved to hike and go around the island.”

The Sitka State Parks Advisory Committee wrote the DNR in November supporting the renaming of the trail for Grussendorf who died in 2011.

Ward said she was glad to hear from the governor that the trail renaming had been approved.

“The Sitka State Parks Advisory Board is pleased that Gov. Walker, Acting Director of State Parks Matt Wedeking and DNR Commissioner Andrew  Mack have concurred in issuing an order to rename the Forest and Muskeg trail – part of the Starrigavan Recreation Area – in honor of the late Ben Grussendorf, three-term Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives. As noted in their correspondence with the board, Ben Grussendorf was a strong supporter of state parks and instrumental in developing the Starrigavan recreational complex.”

Ben was born in 1942 in Grand Rapids, Minn. He and Karen moved to Sitka in 1966 as teachers after they were recruited by Sitka School District  Superintendent Neland Haavig.

Karen remembers the telegram from Haavig, giving the couple 24 hours to decide on accepting his offer.

“Ben was going to graduate school in Minneapolis and St. Paul, I was in Grand Rapids teaching at the time,” Karen said. 

She said the opportunity for outdoor activities, particularly hunting, played a role in their decision to pick Sitka over other offers in Guam and Fairbanks. They bought an International Harvester truck and camper and drove through Winnipeg and across Canada to get to Alaska.

Right away, the Grussendorfs embraced the Alaskan lifestyle: for the first 10 years of their lives in Sitka, they lived largely on subsistence foods.

Besides his social studies and political science teaching positions at Sitka High and Sitka Community College, Ben served on the Sitka unification Charter Commission and the Assembly. He served two terms as mayor.

He was elected to the state House in 1980.

In his letter to Ward the governor said:

“As you know Mr. Grussendorf was not only an avid user of Sitka recreational areas, he was an avid supporter of efforts to get funding for improved recreational facilities in Sitka and specifically the Old Sitka Historical Park. Without his support, we would most likely not have improvements like the Forest and Muskeg Trail.”

“I think it’s something that Ben would really be happy about,” Karen said.

 

 

 

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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