"OI' Riverboat Jack" Gets Lifetime Business Achievement Medal.

He's a mere 81 years old. If it seems like he's been around forever-well, he has, almost. He was born in St. Paul, Minn., but grew up and graduated from high school in Minnewaukan, ND.

Jack has been a businessman and doer of good works for so long, today few people know or can remember his contributions as a young man from Territorial days. Jack has many, many things upon which he can look back with pride or joy. One of them lasted seven years: He worked aboard Yukon River boats, rising from cook (he had to learn how to make coffee) to deck officer. That lasted from 1940 to 1947, something he looks back upon with pride. The first thing he did when he hit the beach was to marry Lucille Tollefson, something he looks back upon with joy.

Why Jack Anderson, and why now? What's he ever done for business you may ask? It's a couple of biggies, and a whole slew of little things. As a younger man he should be remembered for his work in military matters and business affairs. Both had economic impacts for Alaska.

Next year, the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce celebrates its 50th anniversary of founding. Jack founded it! Oh, there must have been others who helped, but the main megaphone was Jack Anderson. It is quite clear, if one reads all of the archival material. It is the achievement upon which he can look back with a sense of great pride. In 1999 that same chamber named Jack its Alaskan of the Year. Others carry on his work today and have made it an organization of which all Alaskan businesses can share pride.

Then there is his military triumph. Cutting to the chase, Jack, almost singlehandedly some say, is responsible for the Alaskan Command remaining in Alaska to this day. No doubt there was a host of other personalities putting in a word for Alaska during the reported five years that the topic was under discussion at the Pentagon. But at the end, it was Jack Anderson who, as the result of being the right man with the right credentials at the right time, carried the day. Read more about this in his special tribute on page 124.

Jack is the only man we know of who, by virtue of who has been, can walk into a top executive's office and get an audience without an appointment. A bit pesty at times, he still commands that kind of respect in much of Alaska's business community. After all, he was twice chairman of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce in addition to being the first state chamber president and a major fund-raiser for (then) Alaska Methodist University.

Jack has always got something going. From earliest days when he was Alaska manager for Hallmark Greeting Cards (for 25 years!) to latter days when he was Regional Director Bush Liaison for Sam's Club, business card printers must have made a haul from whipping out a card for Jack's latest venture. Along the way he became associated with Alaska News Agency, and founded Thomas Anderson Transportation Co. and News Air Co. Add in VP of the Flying Tigers, and later Totem Ocean Trailer Express-plus city council membership and participation in nearly every civic organization known at that time or this-and Jack Anderson, self promoter and perennial entrepreneur, seems a very logical choice for our first Lifetime Business Achievement Medal.