Paul R. Jenkins II
Sep 13, 1947 -
Aug 16, 2024
Paul R. Jenkins II, former managing editor of the Anchorage Times and a regular Alaska newspaper columnist, died on Aug. 16, 2024, after a short illness.
Paul was born on Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., during Hurricane George in 1947. He died in the early morning hours of Aug. 16, 2024, as a summer windstorm pummeled Southcentral Alaska. His wife Linda Lord-Jenkins and sons were by his side. The oldest son of an Air Force Master Sergeant, Paul grew up in Ohio, Florida, and Alaska, where the family lived for nine years on the former Elmendorf Air Force Base. He remembers summers camping and fishing on the Anchor River long before it was known as a king salmon hotspot. His family relocated to Florida shortly before the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. He graduated from Orlando's Edgewater High School in 1965, and married Linda Jasionowski in 1966. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967, and after basic training he completed Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Okla. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and he spent a year in charge of a training company stateside.
In 1969, he volunteered to serve in Vietnam, where he was assigned to the 176th Light Infantry Brigade, 3rd Battalion of the 82nd Artillery. He served several months as a field observer with the South Vietnamese Army and was awarded the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palms. He was promoted to captain and then served as a field artillery unit commander at Landing Zone Hawk Hill and LZ Baldy. As part of his duties he was part of a two-man LOACH helicopter team hunting for North Vietnamese fighters and directing American artillery strikes. He and his pilot reported crash landing 12 times during this period.
After his discharge in 1969, Paul returned to Florida and earned his bachelor's degree in communications and political science at the University of Central Florida (UCF). His sons Paul III and Jason were born in Florida, but he and Linda Jasionowski divorced during that time.
The Orlando Sentinel Star newspaper hired him to work as a news desk clerk while he attended UCF, and after his graduation, promoted him to reporter, then investigative reporter and finally metro editor in 1978. Paul reported on stories including the Miami race riots following acquittal of Miami police charged in the death of a black motorcycle rider in 1980; abuse and neglect of patients at a Florida-state hospital for the handicapped; corruption in the Orange County Sheriffs Department; corruption at a Sanford economic development non- governmental organizations; and corruption on the Alaska North Slope. During that time he met and married Linda Lord-Jenkins and their son Joshua was born in 1976.
While his future at the Sentinel was bright, the draw of Alaska was strong. In September 1980, the Associated Press hired him to work in the AP Anchorage bureau and he was soon driving from Florida up the Alcan highway in a Volkswagen Rabbit, towing a 10-foot trailer and accompanied by a miniature schnauzer named Snowball. Linda and Josh followed him months later. Son Zachary was born there in 1983. Paul worked at the AP until 1989, when he was named managing editor of the Anchorage Times, one of the city's two daily newspapers. Thus ensued the country's last newspaper war between the Times and the Anchorage Daily News. The Times was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism Competition for Overall Excellence award in 1991. The "war" ended in 1992, when the ADN's parent company bought and closed the Times. The two papers then entered into a contract where Paul and two other Times writers provided conservative editorial content as the Voice of the Times on the ADN's daily op-ed page. For two years during this time Paul also taught an entry level journalism class at UAA and was a panelist on the weekly KAKM news show Anchorage Edition.
When the VOT-ADN arrangement ended in June 2007, Paul and the other writers continued the VOT online until 2008. Paul then helped start and edit the Anchorage Daily Planet, an online editorial page published by Porcaro Communications. That arrangement ended in 2020, and, while semi-retired, Paul worked as a monthly freelance conservative opinion writer for the ADN until shortly before his death. Paul was a lover of miniature schnauzer dogs, the Green Bay Packers, Alaska artists of all mediums, riding Harleys with his buddies, sitting by a campfire at dusk and Saturday mornings spent with friends sipping chocolate and solving the world's problems. When asked if he had any last thoughts to share, Paul said, "I wish I had been half as good to people as they were to me."
Paul is survived by his wife of 48 years, Linda Lord-Jenkins; sons, Paul III (Kimberley), Joshua (Charity), Zachary (Joanna) and David Setum; grandchildren, Paul IV, Rebekah Spencer (Connor), Trey, Brandon (Kelsey), Taylor and Brooke, Haydyn, Raegan and Jackson; great-grandchildren, Gunner, Barrett, Easton and Waylon; brothers, John Christopher (Kathie) and Mark, Stacie Smith; and nephews and nieces, Christopher, Alicia Watts, (Jacob) Jessie and Mark Alan (Amanda Blair Jenkins). Paul was preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Myrtle Nell (Casey) Jenkins; and son, Jason.
A memorial service will be held on Oct. 11, 2024, at the First United Methodist Church of Chugiak, 16430 Old Glenn Highway in Chugiak, Alaska. Visitation and viewing will start at 11 a.m., with a funeral service following at noon. The body will be interred at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery at 2:30 p.m.
The family wants to express their gratitude to Dr. Leslie Bryant of the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Clinic for his dedication and kindness during Paul's illness.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the American Cancer Society.
