By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Parks and Recreation Committee opened a discussion at its Tuesday meeting about naming the baseball field at Moller Park “Conway Field” in honor of longtime youth baseball coach Ed Conway.
Kevin Knox, Assembly liaison to the Parks and Recreation Committee, spoke later at Tuesday’s Assembly meeting encouraging comments from the public about naming the field for Conway, head coach of the Sitka High team that won three state baseball championships in a row, 2005-07.
Austin Inman presented the naming proposal to the Parks and Recreation Committee Tuesday.
“Ed’s done a lot for Sitka over the years through baseball,” Inman said. “Thousands of hours in this community through baseball. And I must say up until we won those three championships in a row Sitka hadn’t had a state championship since ’54. I know my kids played for him and they loved him. He’s a great strategizer... “ He made a difference in kids’ lives, Inman said.
Coach Ed Conway took a selfie with the Sitka High Baseball team during opening day ceremonies in 2015.
A group of Sitkans is advocating naming the ball field at Moller Park in honor of Conway.
(Sentinel File Photo)
The proposal calls for keeping Moller Park as the name of the whole recreational complex, which has a playground and fields for football, soccer and track, but naming the ballfield after Ed Conway. Inman told the committee Conway was also heavily involved in the construction and major upgrades of the baseball park.
Last year, the national high school sports authority Max Preps picked Conway for Alaska in a list of “greatest coach from every state.”
At Tuesday’s Parks and Rec meeting the committee weighed in on what the renaming would entail and the processes followed in the past in the naming of public facilities. With only four members of the committee present, the group decided to put the renaming proposal on the agenda for its next meeting.
At the Assembly meeting that night, Knox summarized: “Members weren’t necessarily comfortable with making any recommendations at today’s meeting but certainly want to look at the potential of any recommendations they could make.”
Speaking at the Parks and Rec meeting, chairman James Poulson shared some information about Moller Park he found in Sitka Sentinel archives.
It’s named for Dan Moller, a Sitkan who died in 1950.
“Amazing guy, loved kids, he was kind of an Ed Conway of his day,” Poulson said. “He actually donated the land for a public park in his estate, which was settled by Les Yaw, one of his good friends and fellow Rotarian.”
Poulson said the baseball field itself has no official name, and is referred to as “the field at Moller Park.” He said he sees no conflict with any other name if the field should be named for Conway.
There was some discussion on what the process would be, since there may be other names to consider. Poulson said Conway, who lives in Sitka, seems to be “in a class by himself in a lot of ways with the baseball program.”
Committee member Ben Hughey, who was coached by Conway, commented that Conway brought a “next level energy and enthusiasm for the sport.”
Committee member Barbara Morse said she agreed with comments about Conway, but asked about the naming process. The committee decided to take up the proposal at its April 12 meeting, providing more time to hear from the public and committee members who weren’t present Tuesday.
Poulson said his research showed Moller was born in 1900 in Wilmar, Minnesota. His birth name was Halfdan Jorgensen. He changed his last name to Moller and shortened his first name to “Dan.”
He moved to Alaska at about age 30 to work as an engineer with the U.S. Forest Service, and a ski trail in Juneau that he designed is named for him. Moller came to Sitka in the early 1930s, and his work included supervising workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
His front page obituary in the Sitka Sentinel told of his public service to his community: “Dan, as he was known to all, was outstanding in his interest and aid to the youth of Sitka. An active outdoorsman and sportsman, equally interested in summer and winter sports, he shared these interests with many youths who were taught to hunt, fish, handle a boat and ski by him. He was an ardent ski fan and an active member of the ski club.”
He was a civil engineer, and surveyed land in and around Sitka. He was in the army in World War II, and trained ski troops at a base in Colorado.
The obituary in the Sentinel said that in December 1948, he went to see his mother, Caroline Henrietta Moller, living in Oslo, Norway. “While there on an extensive trip he was involved in an automobile accident and as a result of injuries received to his foot it was discovered he had malignant cancer.” It said after seeking treatment in Norway and Switzerland, he returned to Sitka in July 1950. For the last six weeks of his life, he was cared for by his sister in his final days here.
His funeral was held at the First Presbyterian Church on Sept. 20, the day after he died.
The Sentinel obituary closes with;
“He will be missed by a large number of his juvenile friends, to whom he was a close and ardent friend and confident. Sitka has lost one of its outstanding boosters and citizens with his passing. He lost no opportunity to stress the charm and desirability of living in Sitka, to which he returned of his own choice when he knew the end was but a matter of time, to be amongst these friends he cherished.”
