http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-02-hammond-obit_x.htmJUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Jay Hammond, a rugged bush pilot and hunting guide who served two terms as Alaska's governor and helped create the oil-royalty fund that dispenses annual dividend checks to nearly everyone in the state, died Tuesday. He was 83. Hammond died of natural causes at his home at Lake Clark, about 200 miles west of Anchorage, state troopers said. Troopers were told of Hammond's death by the National Park Service, said Alaska State Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson. Hammond's remote home is near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, the nearest government agency in the area.
Hammond, a Republican who was both a conservative and a conservationist, was governor from 1975 to 1982, during which oil began flowing through the Alaska pipeline. During his time in office, Alaska's broad-based tourism industry was born, fishery stocks were revived and the Alaska Permanent Fund was created. The fund pays nearly every man, woman and child in Alaska a yearly share of the state's oil wealth. Last year, the payout was $919 a person.
Hammond's style combined self-deprecating humor and folksy plainspokenness. To the outside world, the bearded and barrel-chested governor looked every bit the typical rugged Alaskan. Former Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer, a Democrat who worked for Hammond for six years, said the governor would frequently call in his staff and commissioners to kick around ideas.
"He was a good listener and he wanted to do what was right, and not the first thing that came to his head," Ulmer said. "Jay was a very honorable man with high standards of principle and morality."
Rest at link. Jay Hammond deserved his passing to be known.
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