Services for Michael Kitka have been scheduled 11 a.m. Saturday, March 15, at St. Michael’s Cathedral, with Father Michael Boyle officiating.
A luncheon will be at 1 p.m. at Swan Lake Senior Center. Those attending are welcome to take a dish.
Burial will be at Sitka Memorial Park.
Michael died Feb. 20 at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. He was 72.
He was born Dec. 26, 1941, in Sitka, the son of Margaret Kitka and the grandson of Alice and Peter Kitka. He was a Kaagwaantaan.
He attended Sitka schools. At age 9 he began working on his grandfather’s seiner The Commet, and on the Atlas. All the work was done by hand, and pulling the ropes made of hemp, cotton web seines and corks was hard. “It was very, very, very heavy when it was wet,” Michael said.
His other early days of employment included selling newspapers by the Sitka Hotel for big tips; and working at the Pioneer Bakery cleaning up flour off the floor for 5 cents a day and all the baked goods he could eat. He also cut and sold halibut cheeks on the dock, and worked at a “Ma & Pa” restaurant as a cook.
In 1959 he moved to Wrangell, where he did construction, logging, worked in a sawmill, operated a tug boat for Wrangell and Sitka, and also did some fishing.
Other jobs were in a cannery working on shrimp and crab, and at the Pioneers Home.
He also worked in Washington, Oregon and Montana before he returned to Sitka from Wrangell in 1991.
Michael loved to work and sport fish, and “was the No. 1 fan of the Superbowl Seahawks!” a friend said.
Michael is survived by his daughter, Mindy Sue Miller of Portage, Wis.; granddaughter Destani Ann Duskey of Chicago; grandson Jordan James Powless of Portage; aunts Ethel Willis and Maria Guthrie, both of Sitka; uncle Harold Kitka of Sitka; and numerous cousins.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Margaret Kitka; sister Doris Kitka; and grandparents Peter and Alice Kitka.
Pallbearers will be Jeff Wright, Jerry Hall, Al Stevens, Mike White, Scott Foss, Gerald Willis, Arnie Johnson and Steve Edenshaw.
Honorary pallbearers are Stan Filler, Bob Laten, Harold Kitka, Dr. Owen and Pete Menendez.
