In mid-September, his family will return Arnold "Arnie" Hilmer Pederson back home to Sitka, his final resting place.
Arnie, the son of Herman Arnold Pederson and Ethel Marie Muscott, was welcomed to the world at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital on February 16, 1956.
The son of a nurse and a fisherman, Arnold spent his youth on and around Baranof and Kruzof Islands, moving with his family from Mt. Edgecumbe to Sitka when he was in the fifth grade. An avid outdoorsman and tech enthusiast with the intent of serving his community, Arnie participated in CB and ham radio clubs, wrestled for his high school, became a lifetime member of the Sitka Sportsman's Association, and began volunteering for the Sitka Fire Department and EMS as a teenager. In this time and the years following, Arnold would spend time with his cousins visiting from Petersburg, family that he would maintain a strong connection with throughout his life.
After graduating in 1976 from Sitka High School, Arnold went to work at the Alaska Pulp Corp. mill in Sitka while continuing his volunteer work in the community and becoming a lifetime member of the Sitka Moose Lodge in his downtime.
If he wasn’t at the docks helping the fishermen with their radio equipment, Arnie was riding shotgun on emergency rescue adventures and transports with Sitka Fire and EMS. Around this time a few of his closest friends (and fellow troublemakers) were Frank Simmons, Molly Montgomery and Gary Hunt.
It was around 1979 that Arnie met the love of his life, Dorane Kay Calkins. They wed in June of 1983, and began building their life and family as one.
Among the many connections and friendships they had on the island, Gary and Debbie Smith were two friends that Arnie and Dorane maintained a strong bond with for decades.
Arnie and Dorane welcomed their first son, Dustyn, in October 1986. This was followed shortly after by Marie, their first daughter, in 1988, and their third and final child, Koby, in October 1990.
After building their dream home together, Arnie and Dorane continued working in Sitka and remaining active members of the community until Arnie’s employer, the pulp mill, shuttered its doors in July 1993. Left with tough decision to make on their futures, the Pederson family sold their home, said goodbye to their friends and loved ones in the community they’d been a part of their entire lives to that point, and headed south to Oregon in the fall of 1993, where they lived until Arnie’s passing in January.
Though Oregon wasn't the same as Arnie’s true home in the Alaskan Panhandle, he revered trips to the mountains and the Oregon coast. It was clear when Arnie would sit and watch the waves crest on Oregon’s shorelines that he would be thinking about the home he’d left behind. The vivid and cherished memories of his life around the islands where he grew up were evident in the many stories he would tell about his time in Sitka. A part of him never left that beautiful corner of the world, and his final wish was that his family “take me home,” a wish to be fulfilled this week in a bittersweet remembrance of his life.
Arnold passed away in the early morning hours of Friday, January 31, 2025, in Salem, Oregon, surrounded by his wife and children.
He is survived by his wife, Dorane; his three children, Dustyn, Marie and Koby; his three grandchildren, Alyssa, Liam and Keegan; and, by his cousins, Roger Pedersen, Jean Curry, Kathy Joyce, Anna, Nick and Christopher Morris, Jamie Housley-Lynn and Alexander Housley; and his close friends, Gary and Debbie Smith.
Arnold was preceded in death by both of his sisters, Sylvia Kehl and Annie Lindsay; and his cousins Patty Morris and Janice Mikkelsen.
The family asks that those who would like to honor the memory of Arnold Pederson please consider donating to charities or programs run by Sitka Fire Department, or Sitka Sportsman's Association, as these institutions were pivotal in Arnie’s life as a Son of Alaska.
