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Walter J. Hickel, Founder
Biography
Walter J. Hickel served as Governor of Alaska 1966-1969, 1990-1994, and also as U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 1969-1970.
Born in Claflin, Kansas in 1919, Hickel came to Alaska in 1940 and worked as a bartender, carpenter, and developer.
During the 1950s he played a major role in the fight to get 103 million acres included in Alaska's statehood land entitlement, while developing hotels, housing, and shopping centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Seward.
During the 1960s, as the state's second governor, he pushed to open Prudhoe Bay to oil development. As a businessman, he built the Hotel Captain Cook, which is today one of the largest individually-owned hotels in the world. He was named Alaskan of the year in 1969.
As Secretary of the Interior in President Nixon's cabinet, and afterwards, as a national figure in the 1970s, he oversaw the basic permitting process for the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline and helped gain the votes in Congress necessary to get the pipeline going. He played a key role in the settlement of Alaska Native Land Claims, and spoke out nationally for the 200-mile limit to protect Alaska's fisheries. In 1979, Governor Hickel and Alaska's first Governor, William A. Egan founded Commonwealth North, a public policy forum.
During the 1980s, as a business leader, he founded Yukon Pacific Corporation which gained permission to export Alaska natural gas to Asia, which had to that time been prohibited. He also played a key role in efforts to open the Alaska-Russia border in May 1988. In May, 1988, he received the "Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure" from His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan for his leadership in building close Japanese-Alaskan ties.
In 1990, he was again elected governor. In his second term he settled the Exxon Valdez lawsuits, and the billion-dollar fund collected was used to buy land and support science in Prince William Sound, Kachemak Bay, and on Kodiak and Afognak Islands. Hickel played a major role in the establishment of the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. He pushed for establishment of community development quotas, a form of Individual Fishing Quotas that has become a model for fish caught in the North Pacific. He also took the problem of by-catch fish waste to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, where he was the only governor asked to speak. As governor, he collected over $4 billion in long overdue taxes and royalties from oil producers on state land, and established the Northern Forum, a circumpolar association of northern regional governors. He continues as Secretary-General of the Northern Forum.
Today, Governor Hickel devotes much of his time to the Institute of the North to help teach people in Alaska and from around the globe about the obligations of ownership, as most of the world's resources are commonly owned. The institute fosters research and teaching on issues of regional and national strategy on common ownership of lands and oceans, and will eventually attract students from around the U.S. and the world to learn about Alaska, Arctic geography and how to manage the "commons."
Hickel and his wife, Ermalee, have six sons and 16 grandchildren.
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Bibliography
Publications
CRISIS IN THE COMMONS: THE ALASKA SOLUTION (ICS Press, 2002)
WHO OWNS AMERICA? (Prentice-Hall, 1971)
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF WALLY HICKEL (Compiled by Malcolm B. Roberts, Searchers Press, 1994)
GOING UP IN FLAMES: The Promises and Pledges of Alaska Statehood Under Attack (co-author) (1990)
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY -- A Special Report by Walter J. Hickel, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1972
THE POTENTIAL AND THE PROMISE OF THE ARCTIC -- A Special Report to the People by Walter J. Hickel, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior (1970)
READER’S DIGEST articles:
" The Day of the Arctic Has Come" - June 1973
" The Energy War - What We Must Do At Home" - February 1974
" Light, Like the Sun" - March 1974
THE NEW YORK TIMES articles:
" The Alaskan Pipeline is Essential" - March 24, 1971
" Environment: The Cost is to Care" - January 7, 1972
" Oil, Oil Everywhere" - October 25, 1972
" The Need for No-Men" - October 9, 1973
" Sparing America the Anguish" - November 12, 1973
" Now, up up, and awayyy..." - August 14, 1974
" Siberia’s Oil Keeps Spilling" - November 11, 1994
THE SATURDAY EVENING POST articles:
" Alaska the magnificent" - October 1974
" Keeping Alaska on Ice" - August 1979
NEW WORLDS article:
" We’re Not Really Running Out of Resources" - Oct./Nov. 1977
THE WASHINGTON QUARTERLY article:
" Perspective from Alaska" - Summer issue 1981
FAMILY WEEKLY article:
" Let’s Stamp Out Hate in America!" - December 12, 1971
BUSINESS WORLD 1971 article:
" Industry Must Save Us From Decay"
TUNNELING AND UNDERGROUND TRANSPORT
Frank P. Davidson, Editor, Elsevier, New York, article by Walter J. Hickel titled "Planning Macroprojects" (1987)
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Speeches and articles
Documents within this section are representative of Gov. Walter J. Hickel's work before the founding of the Institute of the North. In many cases, the title of the document represents a collection grouped around a common theme.
These documents are saved as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Click here to download the free reader.
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Letters
These documents are saved as Adobe Acrobat PDF files.
May 6, 1970: Youth in their protest must be heard
Letter to President Nixon
April 14, 1978: Alaska Lands
Letter to Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus
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