Former Gov. Sheffield dies at 94; pushed to move Alaska into one time zone

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...