William Harry "Bill" Hobbs

Mar 18, 1940 -

Feb 17, 2026

William Harry "Bill" Hobbs was born to William C.B. and Laura E. (Bachelder) Hobbs on March 18, 1940, in Kennebunk, Maine. An only child, Bill attended a four-room elementary school, followed by a new and larger middle school and high school as Kennebunk grew after World War II. Maine provided outdoor adventures and opportunities for Bill and his friends, with Bill's interest in Alaska piqued through Sergeant Preston of the Yukon radio stories. Bill worked through high school on farms, in the woods doing logging and at the local grocery store. He played classical piano and slide trombone in high school. He met Carolyn A. Bruce just before graduation and became engaged to her, though he did not know just when he would marry her.

After graduating from Kennebunk High School in 1958, he attended Boston College, earning an Associate of the Arts degree in June 1960. After graduation, he accepted an Honorable Discharge from the Marine Corps reserve and joined the Air Force in August 1960. Bill married Carolyn in January 1961, after completing Air Force Basic Training and Technical Training to be an Air Traffic Controller at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. He then had a short assignment at Wright Patterson in Ohio, a tour in Vietnam in 1962, and an 11-month assignment after that in Little Rock, Ark., where son Bruce William was born. In 1965, the Hobbs family of three moved to Eielson AFB, Alaska, where son Gregory Scott was born the next year.

Bill thrived in the Alaska outdoors, enjoying hunting moose in November in the below-zero cold and fishing under the midnight sun. As military life would have it, Bill and his family of four transferred back to the East Coast to Pease AFB, N.H., in 1973 for two years, which provided his sons a connection to their grandparents in Maine and Massachusetts. With the lure of Alaska still strong, Bill and his family moved back to Alaska in 1975 with an assignment to Eielson AFB in Fairbanks. Bruce and Greg grew into their teenage years, Carolyn worked at the NCO Club and the whole family enjoyed the Alaska outdoors. An assignment to Elmendorf AFB in 1979 brought Bill and his family to Anchorage. Bill achieved promotions to Master Sergeant and Senior Master Sergeant at Elmendorf. In 1980, Bill elected to turn down the final promotion and retire from the Air Force, as to accept the promotion would have meant a move to Illinois.

Bill moved his family to a newly built home in Eagle River. Bill finished raising his two sons as graduates from Chugiak High School, with college and careers that followed for both. After his sons left home, Bill was extremely active at the Masonic Lodge and was a proud charter member of the Eagle River Lodge at its inception. Bill and Carolyn enjoyed years of camping and fishing adventures in the Alaska outdoors, building lasting friendships with fellow campers. Bill finished his working career with the State of Alaska, retiring as a Title Specialist and Resource Officer in the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Land. He proudly completed his Bachelor of the Arts at Alaska Pacific University during this time.

Bill passed, at age 85, on Feb. 17, 2026, in Anchorage after a brief hospital stay. A short service for Bill will be held Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 11 a.m., at the Community Christian Church, 11529 Celestial Street in Eagle River Alaska. Bill was predeceased by his wife Carolyn on Aug. 5, 2021; and is survived by sons, Bruce and Greg; daughters-in-law, Michele and Jo; grandchildren, Lindsey, Steven and Scott; and great-grandchildren, Audrey and Tucker.