Former Gov. Bill Sheffield on July 14, 2000, when he was president of the Alaska Railroad.
Bill Sheffield, who served as Alaska's fifth governor and survived a brush with impeachment during a decades-long career in public service, died Nov. 4 at his Anchorage home after a long illness. He was 94.
Sheffield was born in 1928 to a poor family on a small farm in Spokane, Washington, and he grew up during the Great Depression. After serving as a radar technician with the U.S. Army, he got a job with Sears Roebuck and was sent to the territory of Alaska.
"So that's how I got here in 1953," Sheffield said to Alaska Public Media in 2019 for the release of his memoir. "Come by steamship from Seattle to Seward, rode the train up to Anchorage, never turned back."
A gifted salesman, Sheffield overcame a profound stutter on his way to founding a chain of 19 hotels, which were eventually sold to Holland America Line in 1987 and operate today as Westmark Hotels.
A big donor to Democratic causes, Sheffield eyed a career in politics. He aborted a 1978 run as governor when his wife, Lee, was diagnosed with cancer. She later died in his arms, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported.
In 1982, Sheffield largely bankrolled his own campaign and handily won election to be governor over Republican Tom Fink, Libertarian Dick Randolph and Joe Vogler, founder of the Alaska Independence Party.
The 1982 campaign saw Sheffield run in opposition to a ballot measure to move Alaska's capital from Juneau - the measure failed - and supporting continuation of subsistence hunting and fishing rights.
Sheffield traveled extensively as governor across Alaska to the smallest and most remote communities. Former Commissioner John Pugh, who served under Sheffield and traveled with him, remembered his "amazing energy"and focus on developing Alaska, such as pushing for the construction of the Ketchikan shipyard.
Former Department of Administration Commissioner Eleanor Andrews remembered successfully working with Sheffield to get more women and minorities into the public sector. And his push for equal pay for women.
"I just think that Bill was generous, supportive of people, and just had a good heart," she said.
When Sheffield took office, the state operated under four time zones, with Juneau and Anchorage two hours apart, causing confusion and frustration for citizens and the business community. In 1983, Sheffield successfully pushed to change that so Alaska would operate under a single time zone, apart from the far western reaches of the Aleutian Islands.
Decades later, Sheffield cited that as one of his greatest accomplishments as governor. He also cited the opening of the massive Red Dog Mine north of Kotzebue, which he championed.
His time in office is perhaps best remembered, though, for his impeachment hearings. In 1985, a grand jury accused him of steering a state office space lease to a building owned by supporters in Fairbanks. Sheffield was not indicted, but the grand jury's recommendation that the Legislature consider impeaching him was made public after being obtained by news media.
Broadcast live on television over 12 days, the hearings resulted in a condemnation of Sheffield, but the state Senate did not recommend moving to an impeachment trial in the House.
In 1986, he ran for reelection, but the impeachment hearings had tarnished his reputation and the price of oil had plunged, strangling state revenues and leading to tough budget cuts. Sheffield lost in the primary to fellow Democrat Steve Cowper, who went on to win that year's gubernatorial race.
Sheffield was the first and only Alaska governor to have faced impeachment hearings. Pugh said the hearings may have been significant for his political career, but that they became a footnote in his long public service to Alaska.
Sheffield's public service career was far from over when he left office. He had advocated for the state to buy the Alaska Railroad from the federal government when he was governor, and he went on to serve on the railroad's board of directors and then as the corporation's chief executive officer.
He helped to bring in millions of dollars in federal funding with the late Sen. Ted Stevens. And the train terminal at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is named in Sheffield's honor.
For over a decade, he was the director of the Port of Anchorage, and was credited with bringing in another influx of federal dollars to help expand it, though construction and cost overruns have plagued the project.
Years passed and he continued to be active in Alaska politics, raising funds and supporting both Republican and Democratic candidates.
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