Lucy Groh

July 28, 1926 -

May 29, 2020

Lucy Groh passed away on Friday, May 29, 2020. Her long life tells much of the story of post-World War II Alaska.

Born on July 28, 1926, in New Haven, Conn., Lucy grew up from age 3 in rural Florida, and worked in the family business, growing citrus and tending to cottages for tourists. In the early months after America entered WWII, a 15-year-old Lucy would spend long shifts at the local airfield scouring the skies for enemy planes.

She matriculated to Cornell University and became a successful actress while majoring in English and drama. One day she was reading Plato outside on campus and her friend introduced her to a young man in the Naval officer's training program, Cliff Grohoski. The two hit it off and began dating, but things stalled when she politely refused his offer of marriage. Her reason? She needed to finish college first. So Cliff went off to serve abroad and they lost touch for years.

After Cornell, Lucy took a job with Procter & Gamble in Ohio. One day in 1949 she was heading back to Florida, and a storm diverted her plane to Miami. She knew Cliff was living there attending law school, so she got his address from a mutual friend and showed up at his doorstep. At first he wouldn't even come to the door, because he thought it was a prank. Less than a year later, they were wed.

Their first two years of marriage took Cliff and Lucy west to Albuquerque and San Diego. Cliff decided to shorten his last name to "Groh." And then in 1952, Cliff convinced Lucy to take a "vacation" to Alaska to visit his friend Roger Cremo, who had moved up there. Lucy realized it was going to be a longer stay than a vacation when she had learned her laundryman's first name.

Lucy threw herself into a new life in Alaska. She got heavily involved in local volunteer and community groups and helped with Alaska's successful statehood campaign.

Cliff and Lucy wanted a family, and unfortunately suffered multiple miscarriages and deaths of premature babies. But they were blessed with three children: Cliff, Paul and Betsy.

On March 27, 1964, Lucy removed Cliff and Paul from the family's carport because they were fighting and picked up baby Betsy from the living room floor. Minutes later, the second worst earthquake in recorded human history struck Alaska. The carport collapsed and the family's piano crashed across the living room right where Betsy had been. The earthquake lasted four and half minutes, and it was so intense that Lucy thought it was the Second Coming.

Cliff and Lucy separated in 1976, and Lucy left Anchorage to live near Lake Tahoe, Nev. Against the odds, they decided to reconcile in 1982 and Lucy moved back to Alaska.

Cliff died of cancer in 1998. Lucy also battled various forms of cancer through the last two decades of her life. She spent much of her time and energy doting on her beloved grandsons: Kevin, Carter and Bennett.

Lucy's life shows us how small decisions change the trajectory of a life. What if she hadn't decided to show up on Cliff Grohoski's doorstep in Miami unannounced that night in 1949?

And it is one of the last frontier stories in American history. Lucy came to Anchorage more than 67 years ago when the community had just about 30,000 people, and the home where she and her husband raised her children was built into the side of a hill and had a partial dirt floor when they moved in.

Her survivors include her son, Cliff and his wife Theresa Philbrick; her son, Paul; and her daughter, Betsy Ptak and her husband David; along with grandsons, Kevin Groh, Carter Ptak and Bennett Ptak.

Memorials can be sent to either Bean's Cafe, an Anchorage homeless restaurant and social center, or the Salvation Army. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, no church services will be held. A private family graveside service will place Lucy next to her husband in the Pioneer tract of the Anchorage Cemetery.

A longer version of this obituary entitled "The Story of Lucy Groh" is available at shorturl.at/zADK5 on the internet.