Leif Selkregg

Jun 1, 1955 -

Apr 5, 2023

Former Anchorage, Alaska, and Chicago, Ill., resident Leif Selkregg died in Ely, Minn., on April 5, 2023, of complications from early onset dementia. He was 67.

Leif was born in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. He rode with his sisters Alicia and Sheila up the Alcan Highway as a toddler in 1958, where his family began a life in Alaska. The Selkreggs lived on L Street upon arrival in 1958 and later settled in the Nunaka Valley neighborhood. He attended Inlet View and Nunaka Valley elementary schools, Clark Middle School and East High School where he was an avid hockey player.

Leif received his architecture training at the University of Oregon and worked on the trans-Alaska pipeline. During this phase of his life, he developed an interest and talent with pottery. He became a Loeb fellow at Harvard University in 1988.

He married Laura Myntti in 1989. He then went to work in project management in London and enjoyed early married life living on Portobello Road. After four years in London and a brief time in New York City, they returned to Anchorage to start a project management company, RISE, building and project managing large scale projects such as the Alaska SeaLife Center, the Ted Stevens International Airport expansion, and the Kodiak Launch Complex. He and Laura had two children, Beron and Mills.

Leif and his family moved to Chicago in 1998, where the scope of his work continued to expand, managing projects including Children's Hospital of Chicago's facilities, numerous additions to major museums including the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Harvard Art Museum and a presidential library for Theodore Roosevelt.

Throughout his life, he often returned to the woods. After moving from Alaska and settling in Chicago, the family bought a cabin outside of Ely, on the edge of the Boundary Water Canoe Area. Leif, Laura, and the children would spend summers there, replacing the hustle and heat of the city with blueberries, canoes and northern lights. It was there that Leif later met Tanya, his third wife and surviving partner, and eventually retired.

Leif was known to all as positive, intelligent and driven, as evidenced by his many business accolades and lasting relationships. He was a loving father, a visionary leader and a kind human.

Leif is survived by two children, Beron and Mills Selkregg; wife, Tanya Thompson; and older sister, Sheila Selkregg. He is preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Lidia Selkregg; and sister, Alicia Iden and her husband, Leif's brother-in-law, Robert Iden.

Two memorials were held: one in Anchorage at the Hotel Captain Cook Quarter Deck on Thursday, July 6, 2023, and one in Chicago at the Art Institute on July 23, 2023.

Donations in his memory can be sent to The Selkregg Community Engagement and Service-Learning Award, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508.

Checks may be made to UA Foundation, noting the Selkregg Award, or people may donate online at https://engage.alaska.edu/uaa/give-now.