William Eugene Northrup

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Friday, 02 October 2015 10:32

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Former Resident

Bill Northrup, 68,

Dies in Fairbanks

Former Sitkan William Eugene (Bill) Northrup died Sept. 15 at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. He was 68.

He was born October 27, 1946, in La Porte, Indiana, the son of Raymond and Doris Northrup. Two years later, the family moved to Anacortes, Washington, and in 1954 came to Alaska.

Ray Northrup was a logger, and they were one of the first five families in Hollis. In 1956, they moved to Edna Bay, then Ketchikan, and finally Sitka.

Bill graduated from Sitka High School in 1964. While still in high school, he worked as a broadcaster for radio station KIFW.

After a semester at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bill enlisted in the United States Navy.  After radio school in San Diego, he was stationed on the USS Wilhoite, a radar picket ship. He also served on the USS Nicholas while it was in support of NASA’s Apollo Program, and finally on the USS O’Bannon. 

After leaving the service, he returned to Sitka. In 1970, he married Tammy Pyne, whom he had met in Fairbanks. He worked several positions at the local pulp mill and as a fry cook on the Marine Highway System, before moving permanently back to Fairbanks in 1974.

After working in air cargo for Wien Air and Igloo Enterprises, he started his own company, Alaska Cargo Services, in 1981. They specialized in hazmat training and bypass mail, coordinating the shipment of all groceries going north of Fairbanks.

He also worked for Mark Air, Lyndon Air Freight, Flying Tigers, Air North, and Omni Logistics.

In the early 1980s, he also began driving for Tri-Limo, which led him into the taxi industry. He then worked for King Cab and Independent Taxi, as well as the night desk at the Great Land Hotel. In 1987, he and Del Zimmer founded Fairbanks Taxi, the neon green cabs. Under later manager Don Carpenter, the company was replaced by Eagle Cab and Yellow Cab, known collectively as Alaska Transportation Unlimited, with Bill Northrup as operations manager. With that company, he also did more than 130 trips to Prudhoe Bay as a pilot car driver, retiring altogether due to health reasons in 2014.

Bill will be remembered by many as a role model, a helping hand, a father (and grandfather) figure, and a source of wisdom.

One of two things of which he was very proud was how, when driving cab, he would pick up visitors from the villages who would recognize his voice from listening to him on the radio at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. The other was how, when those people sent their children and their grandchildren to UAF, they’d send along Bill’s phone number so the kids could call him for help getting settled in.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Raymond and Doris Northrup of Sitka, and special friend Jennifer Fuller.

He is survived by his son Justin Northrup of Fairbanks; his daughter Kristen, son-in-law Gus Lindgren, and grandson Raymond of Bismarck, North Dakota; his sister Leanne Griffin and wife Samra Green of Juneau; and extended family in Ketchikan and Washington state.

Memorial services will be scheduled and announced at a later date in Sitka.

 

Memorial donations may be made to the Humane Society of the United States and the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Services Trust.