William Allen Egan
1st Governor of Alaska 4th Governor of Alaska
In office 1959 – 1966 1970 – 1974
Lieutenant(s)	Hugh Wade – 1st Term H. A. "Red" Boucher – 2nd Term
Preceded by	Waino Hendrickson – 1st Term Keith Miller – 2nd Term
Succeeded by	Walter Hickel – 1st Term Jay Hammond – 2nd Term
Born	October 8, 1914 Valdez, Alaska
Died	May 6, 1984. Anchorage, Alaska
Political party	Democratic
Profession	Politician
Religion	Catholic

William Allen Egan (October 8, 1914–May 6, 1984) was an American Democratic politician. He served as the first Governor of the State of Alaska from January 3, 1959 to 1966, and elected to a second term from 1970 to 1974. Born in Valdez, Alaska, Until the 2006 election of Sarah Palin, Egan was the only state governor to have actually been born in Alaska. He is today considered as one of the modern fathers of the state, and remains a popular figure in Alaskan history and state political culture. Image File history File links Egan_Freshman. ... This is a list of the governors of the U.S. state of Alaska, of Alaska Territory and of the District of Alaska, and the military commanders of the District of Alaska. ... This is a list of the governors of the U.S. state of Alaska, of Alaska Territory and of the District of Alaska, and the military commanders of the District of Alaska. ... This is a list of people who have served as lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Alaska since statehood in 1959. ... Waino Edward Hendrickson (June 18, 1896–1983) was an American Republican politician who was the acting Governor of Alaska Territory in 1957, and again from 1958 to 1959. ... Keith Harvey Miller (born March 1, 1925) is an American Republican politician who was the Governor of Alaska from 1969 to 1970. ... Categories: People stubs | 1919 births | Governors of Alaska | U.S. Secretaries of the Interior ... Jay Sterner Hammond (born July 21, 1922) is an American Republican politician who was the Governor of Alaska from 1974 to 1982. ... October 8 is the 281st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (282nd in leap years). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Valdez (IPA: ) is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Note: an anchorage is a place where a ship lays anchor. ... Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ... October 8 is the 281st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (282nd in leap years). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This is a list of the governors of the U.S. state of Alaska, of the Territory of Alaska and of the District of Alaska, and the military commanders of the Department of Alaska, as well as the governors of Russian America. ... Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Valdez (IPA: ) is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sarah Heath Palin (born 1964) is the Governor-Elect of Alaska, after her victory in the 2006 election. ...

Early childhood and adulthood

The child of a working-class mining family of six children in Valdez, Egan was raised by his mother following his father's death in an avalanche in 1920. By age ten, Egan was working in a local cannery, helping to support his struggling family. Thanks to the lack of driving laws in the Alaska Territory during the 1920s, Egan learned to drive at an early age, shuttling tourists around during summer months. By the age of 14, Egan was driving dump trucks for the Alaska Road Commission. 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... Alaska Territory was an organized territory of the United States from August 24, 1912 to January 3, 1959, when Alaska became the 49th state. ... The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ...

Following his graduation as a valedictorian from Valdez High School in 1932, Egan began an interest in politics. Egan's godfather, Anthony Dimond, a local Valdez lawyer, two-time mayor and member to the Alaska Senate, ran as a Democrat for the territory's nonvoting delegate to the federal U.S. House of Representatives the same year. Despite the position's inability to vote due to the Tennessee Plan, a nonvoting delegate could address other House members and lobby for both bills and statehood. Dimond won the race, introducing the young Egan, who viewed Dimond as his mentor, to territorial and federal politics. Dimond would send copies of Congressional Record back to Egan in Valdez for reading. In the United States and Canada, the title of valedictorian (an anglicized derivation from the Latin vale dicere, to say farewell) is given to the top graduate of the graduating class (compare dux) of an educational institution. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Anthony Joseph Dimond (November 30, 1881-May 28, 1953) was an American Democratic Party politician who was the Alaska Territory Delegate in the United States House of Representatives for many years (1933-1945). ... The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska State Legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... The House of Representatives is the larger of two houses that make up the U.S. Congress, the other being the United States Senate. ... The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. ...

In later years, Egan would recall that he greatly admired Dimond's civility of avoiding political mudslinging and gentlemanly manners to politicians and the public alike. Egan would also recall that Dimond's passion for statehood contributed to his own desire for the territory to join the Union, freeing the state from constrictions on federal voting, legislation, and corporate governance.

Political career

Following on his godfather's footsteps, Egan ran successfully as the Democratic candidate for Valdez in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives in 1940, a post he would hold until 1945. He would win three more terms to the House from 1947 to 1953. In 1941, Egan married Neva McKittrick, a recent arrival to Valdez from Kansas. During the Second World War, where Alaska's own Aleutian Islands saw bloody combat between American and Imperial Japanese forces, Egan continued his political career. While still serving in the House of Representatives, Egan was elected as Mayor of Valdez in 1943, a post he would hold for three years. In 1953, Egan was elected to the upper house Alaska Senate. The Alaska House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... This article is about the year. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Looking down the Aleutians from an airplane. ... now. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. ... The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska State Legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. ...

The Constitutional Convention

Following the end of the war, the Territory of Alaska's political and geographical isolation was coming to an end. The construction of the Alaska Highway now linked the territory to the Lower 48 states and Canada, plus an increased military presence due to the Cold War with the neighboring Soviet Union had also brought the territory closer to the rest of North America. Map of Alaska Highway (in red) The Alaska Highway, also the Alaskan Highway, Alaska-Canadian Highway, and the Alcan Highway, runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. ... The continental United States refers (except sometimes in U.S. federal law and regulations) to the largest part of the U.S. that is delimited by a continuous border. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...

In 1955, the Alaska Legislature ordered the creation of a constitutional convention to seek a state constitution suitable for Congressional approval. The convention met at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks campus in November. Territorial Senator Egan was chosen to lead the body in drafting a new state document. Following the end of the convention a year later, the Alaska Constitution was sent to Alaskans as part of a referendum in 1958, passing easily. The statehood issue was turned over to the U.S. Congress later that year, passing by only one vote. President Dwight Eisenhower signed the resulting Alaska Statehood Act into law. Alaska was to become the 49th state. 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Alaska Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. ... The University of Alaska Fairbanks is the Fairbanks branch of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as UAF. UAF is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant college, as well as the site at which the Alaska State Constitution was signed. ... // The Alaska Constitution is the constitution of the U.S. state of Alaska. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army. ... The Alaska Statehood Act, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 7, 1958, allowing Alaska to enter the Union on January 3, 1959. ...

Governorship

Scheduled to become a U.S. state on January 3, 1959, Egan decided to run as the first state governor. Egan won the race, becoming governor upon the state's admission. Egan, who had campaigned for statehood since the 1930s, had not only achieved one major political victory, but had also reached the state's highest office. January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

During his first governorship, Egan supervised the transition of Alaska's territorial bureaucracy into a state government. Egan also encouraged investment into the U.S.'s newest state, noting its slowly growing oil and tourist industries. During the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, Egan supervised and directed the state's response to the disaster, an earthquake that still remains one of the strongest earthquakes of the modern era. 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Fourth Avenue, Anchorage The Good Friday Earthquake (also called the Great Alaska Earthquake) of Friday, March 27, 1964, 5:36 P.M. ADT (03:36 3/28 UTC) was the second most powerful earthquake in U.S. and North American history after magnitude 9. ...

Leaving the governorship in 1966, Egan was elected again in 1970, serving a second term until 1974. The discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968 and the 1973 Oil Crisis in response to the Yom Kippur War played a large role in Egan's second governorship, as oil's demand increasingly played a role in the state's politics. In the later months of 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, an act to reduce American dependence on Arab oil. Many environmental politicians in the state bitterly opposed this federal legislation during the second Egan governorship. 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Prudhoe Bay (pronounced Prue-toe) is a census-designated place located in North Slope Borough, Alaska. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... At the height of the crisis in the United States, drivers of vehicles with odd numbered license plates were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd-numbered days of the month, while drivers with even-numbers were limited to even-numbered days. ... Combatants Israel Egypt Syria Jordan Iraq Commanders Moshe Dayan David Elazar Ariel Sharon Shmuel Gonen Benjamin Peled Israel Tal Rehavam Zeevi Aharon Yariv Yitzhak Hofi Rafael Eitan Abraham Adan Yanush Ben Gal Saad El Shazly Ahmad Ismail Ali Hosni Mubarak Mohammed Aly Fahmy Anwar Sadat Abdel Ghani el-Gammasy Abdul... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... When President Nixon allowed a pipeline to be built to transport oil from Alaska to places you could actually use it ...

Later life

Following Egan's departure from the governorship in 1974, Egan retired from public and political life. He died ten years following leaving office on May 6, 1984 at the age of 69 from lung cancer. May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lung cancer is a cancer of the lungs characterized by the presence of malignant tumours. ...

Legacy

Egan is considered one of the modern fathers of Alaska, and still remains a popular figure in the state for his passionate appeal for statehood and his gentlemanly politics. Egan struggled with public speaking throughout his life, yet still commanded an audience that was drawn to his charm and simple Alaskan roots. Egan was often noted for mingling with crowds effortlessly.

October 8 is now William Egan Day in Alaska. October 8 is the 281st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (282nd in leap years). ...

The William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center in Downtown Anchorage is named in his honor. The William A. Egan Center, constructed in 1984 is named for Alaskas first governor William Allen Egan. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ...

Governors of Alaska
District: Kinkead • Swineford • Knapp • Sheakley • Brady • Hoggatt • Clark Territorial: Clark • Strong • Riggs • Bone • Parks • Troy • Gruening • Heintzleman • Hendrickson • Stepovich • Hendrickson State: Egan • Hickel • Miller • Egan • Hammond • Sheffield • Cowper • Hickel • Knowles • Murkowski • Palin