Robert Edward "Bob" Price
Oct 23, 1933 -
Apr 16, 2020
If lights dimmed in libraries throughout Alaska on April 16, 2020, the friends and family of Robert E. "Bob" Price would not have been surprised. A lifelong reader and intellectual, Bob passed away on that day in the company of his stepdaughter Anne Williams at the Anchorage Pioneer Home.
Bob was born on Oct. 23, 1933, in Chicago, Ill., the son of George and Kathryn (Gaughan) Price.
In his youth, Bob jumped freight trains and hitch-hiked across the U.S., ran with the bulls in Pamplona, visited Hemingway's haunts in Paris, and traveled aboard freighters to foreign lands. In later years, he walked the Great Wall of China with his wife Nadine.
He attended DePaul University in Chicago, obtaining his A.B. degree, graduating magna cum laude, and later his J.D. degree, also magnum cum laude. Bob studied in Mexico and Brazil as a Fulbright Scholar. He learned Portuguese in Brazil, later adding French.
Bob moved to Juneau, Alaska, in 1966, driving off an Alaska Marine Highway ferry in a VW hatchback crammed with one suitcase and 23 cartons of books in English, French and Portuguese. His stepdaughter Janet Rogozinski said that Bob was probably the only person then living in Juneau with a subscription to the weekly edition of Le Monde, a newspaper he had flown in from Paris.
In 1972, he married Nadine Metcalfe Richardson Williams. They lived in Juneau, Homer, Anchorage and then in Douglas, across from Juneau. He is fondly remembered as an attentive stepfather to Nadine's four children, a much-loved grandfather and great-grandfather to their progeny, and a beloved uncle to Nadine's nine Metcalfe nieces and nephews.
Bob was an expert in complex Alaska Native-related legal issues. During Alaska Governor Keith Miller's tenure (1969-70), Bob served as an assistant attorney general and became Governor Miller's legal advisor on issues involving the Alaska Native land claims. He later served as a solicitor in the U.S. Department of the Interior, an advisor in the Alaska Office in Washington, D.C., and retired after more than a decade as the corporate attorney for the Bristol Bay Native Corporation.
He spent countless hours of his retirement visiting libraries and perusing historical books and documents, following his keen interests wherever they might lead. "Bob was endlessly curious and read more books in his lifetime than anyone we know," his family said.
Like his reading, Bob's hobbies were erudite, inspired and broad, ranging from an interest in Japanese woodworking techniques, to classic sailboats; from the Tao of making green tea, to his passion for baking the perfect baguette. For such a worldly man, he was an introvert who found his true compass through his marriage to Nadine.
Bob was the author of "The Great Father in Alaska: The Case of the Tlingit and Haida Salmon Fishery," the "Bibliography of Literature on Alaska Native History From 1741 to 1867," and a book-length paper for the Alaska Statehood Commission entitled "Legal Status of the Alaska Natives."
Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; brother, Richard A. Price; nephew, Mark Stephen Price; stepdaughter, Donna Richardson Williams Hoepfner; and Donna's husband, Peter Hoepfner.
He is survived by his stepchildren: James (Arbe) Williams, Janet Richardson (Jacques) Rogozinski and Anne Williams. He is also survived by his Chicago family, nieces Sharon Robinson, Marsha Winzeler, Heidi Brito and Sheila Cisneros, and numerous nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Bob's ashes will be interred near his wife, Nadine Price, in Juneau at a later date.
