Robert Libbey

Mar 20, 1935 -

Nov 25, 2024

Robert Malcolm Libbey, adventurer, horseman and lawyer, passed away on Nov. 25, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska, with his beloved wife, Karol, of 62 years, by his side. He led an extraordinary life, beginning in the small coal mining town of Benezette, Pa., on March 20, 1935, where he was born at home to Arthur Burdick Libbey and Virginia Lucille Maclean Libbey. After graduating from Arkport High School, he enlisted in the Marines rising to the rank of sergeant and served in Korea. After returning home, he attended college on the GI bill. Initially, he went to Nebraska, where he played football and worked on a cattle ranch. This set the tone for his love of horses which persisted throughout his life. After his freshman year, he transferred to Alfred University in upstate New York, where he met Karol June Edwards with whom he fell in love and married. He went on to law school at Cornell University. Following graduation in 1963, he and Karol loaded up their car with all of their belongings and drove to Alaska with their 18-month-old daughter Beth and 6-month-old daughter Kathie. It was Karol's first ever camping trip, and the beginning of many adventures to come.

Alaska provided wilderness galore, as he embraced the outdoors with his wife and family climbing mountains, hunting, fishing and skiing. They moved into a duplex in Spenard, adding three more children, Carol May, Robert John and Daniel Edward, and picking up a few horses along the way, which also shared their Spenard abode. Exploring the backcountry on horseback and foot became a way of life.

Bob built a respectable career in law, representing individuals in need, taking on auto manufacturers and large corporations, always fighting for the little guy and trying to make products safer for all of us. He was creative in his approach to cases, one time having his daughter suspend herself in a trap door that was left open in a dark outhouse to demonstrate how his client was injured. Many of his early cases set legal precedents in the very new State of Alaska. He loved the law, and worked right up until two months before his death, when his health would no longer allow it.

In 1998, with his wife Karol and son Bob, he bought a lodge along the Denali Highway, Denali Country Ranch, and took horseback trips back into the mountains with guests. For more than 20 years they hosted guests, family and friends in the glorious Alaska Range, horseback riding, fishing, hiking and telling stories around the campfire. Bob told many an Alaskan tale or read a Robert Service poem by the glow of a campfire to a rapt audience. He took a special interest in each and every grandchild and great-grandchild, teaching them about the land and the way of the horse, and listening to their voices as well.

Bob touched many lives throughout his journey, at the lodge, within the legal community, at St. Mary's, where he was a member since 1963, and with people that he met along the way. He leaves behind his wife, Karol; daughters, Beth (Bart Theisen), Kathie (Earl Dotten) and Carol (Kenneth Schacht); son, Daniel (Colleen Libbey); 20 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by son, Robert; parents, Arthur and Virginia Libbey; brothers, John and David; and sister, Charlotte Weidman.

A celebration of life for Bob Libbey will be held on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, beginning at 1:30 p.m., at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Anchorage. In lieu of flowers, kindly donate to the Bob Libbey Memorial Fund at St Mary's Church, 2222 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99507.