Lawrence Bahovec spent a significant portion of his birthday watching football in his bathrobe and waiting for his granddaughters to call.

The occasion was subdued for a 97-year-old fisherman who spent decades wresting his living from local waters.

Bahovec was born in 1917 in Chicago, near the end of World War I. His father was a fisherman and carried the family name from Yugoslavia. After fishing in Western Washington for a few years, the family relocated to Wrangell.

While his father was out fishing, his mother took up with another man who drank heavily. When his father returned, he reloc...