Richard R. Lounsbury
Dec 15, 1929 -
Apr 27, 2023
Richard "Dick" Rodney Lounsbury, sourdough Alaskan, age 93, passed away peacefully of natural causes with family at his side.
Dick was born on Dec. 15, 1929, during the deep depression, to Rodney and Rose (Radford) Lounsbury in Onoway, Alberta, Canada. For the first seven years of his childhood, he lived with his parents and grandparents on a farm in rural Bellis, Alberta. There, he learned to love nature and spent a grand and free childhood hunting gophers for their bounty with his dog Buster, cutting off their tails to turn in for pennies. He graduated from Kitsilano High School in 1948 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and attended the University of B.C. Athletic in high school, he played football, ran track, rowed in four-oared shells and was better than an average boxer participating in the Golden Gloves as a Welter Weight; in his 20s he rowed for the Vancouver Rowing Club in four and double-oared racing shells. He married his high school sweetheart, Charity Holliday, in June 1951.
Dick and Charity move to Alaska in 1952. Initially, he worked for Alaska Airlines in dispatch and then as a dispatcher for Reeve Aleutian Airways. He then changed occupations and worked for ML&P for 28 years. Eventually, after autodidact study evenings, he consecutively held the positions of Chief Engineer and Manager of Generation, and then Manager of Construction. He had interesting stories about restoring electric power ensuing the 1964 great Alaska earthquake. At the same time, with the boundless energy of youth, in the late 1950s, he built their family home on West 20th Avenue in Anchorage, as well as several other residential and commercial buildings. Simultaneously, he was involved in a fishing business, Aqua Ventures, in partnership with his son, Brett in Kodiak, Alaska. Unfortunately, the boat sunk in 1985; Dick went to help Brett with the recovery, never returning to ML&P.
While working at ML&P, he learned to fly. Dick bought an aircraft and, in order to support his expensive pastime, he started to take out hunters; eventually, he became a Guide outfitter, Number 99. When he was 91, he had a home constructed in La Paz, Mexico, as a winter home.
A calculated risk taker, Dick led an adventuresome life in Alaska. he hunted sheep and caribou in the Brooks Range and flew numerous aircraft north from Georgia and Minnesota. He flew all over Alaska, visiting all the Aleutian Islands with airstrips from Cold Bay to Attu while working for Reeve Aleutian Airways. Later, he purchased an M7-235 Maule and became the Maule Aircraft representative for Alaska. One of the enjoyable trips was when he flew it up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay and west around through Barrow, Nome, Cape Lisburne, Kotzebue, Unalakleet, Dillingham and back to Anchorage. However, the best trip of all was crossing the Canadian border at Dawson City then flying north to Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, then down the Mackenzie River to Norman Wells, and from there east across Great Bear Lake to Kugluktuk on the Arctic Ocean.
At his hunting lodge, the Bearette Inn, located in the Susitna Valley near Beluga Mountain, he guided both American and European hunters for trophy moose, black bear, grizzly and brown bear. After peace with Russia, his clientele collapsed as they wanted to hunt in Eastern Europe. Approximately at the same time, the Aqua Ventures fishing business moved to Chignik on the Alaska Peninsula; so, Dick got an exclusive hunting area in Stepovak Bay, near Chignik, where he relocated his hunting business for 18 years taking hunters of various nationalities for hunts of big coastal brown bears. He retired from hunting when he was 78 years old. He loved the hunting business more than any of his other occupations.
Dick was instrumental in helping to organize the youth hockey program in Anchorage and was the AHAUS registrar for Alaska and a founding member of the Alaska State Hockey Association, a member of the Elks Club and the Alaska Airmen's Association. He flew Beavers for the Civil Air Patrol on many search and rescue missions throughout Alaska.
Dick is survived by his sister, Arlene Williamson with nephew, Danny of Vancouver, B.C.; niece, Susan Williamson of Summer Side, Prince Edward Island, Canada; son, Mark and daughter-in-law Stephanie of Tucson, Ariz.; granddaughter, Jennifer Thomasson and husband Colin of Anchorage with children, Aster and Sawyer; grandson, Tony Lounsbury of Anchorage with son Thaddeus; son, Brett of Kodiak and La Paz, Mexico, with sons, Alex of Portland, Ore., and Max of Hawaii; numerous Canadian cousins; and longtime companion and wife, Mio Johnson, whom he married in 2022, at the young age of 92.
Dick was preceded in death by his parents; Charity, his beloved wife of 66 years; and nephew, Michael Williamson. Dick and his wife Charity's ashes will be interred at their favorite cabin on Cow Lake, Alaska. His was a life well lived. Carpe Diem.
