Charles Edward Vandergaw
Jun 2, 1938 -
Mar 30, 2025
Charles Edward Vandergaw – outdoorsman, pilot, guide, photographer, teacher, coach, bear man - left this world early March 30, 2025, after a four-year struggle with Parkinsonism. It was a peaceful passing at home with his family and pets by his side. He was 86 years old. He is survived by his wife, Lanette (Ashcraft); daughters, Leslie (Micky) and Terra (Richard); grandchildren, Ella, Finch and Urs; as well as nieces and nephews in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Iowa and Germany.
Charlie was born in Lakeview, Ore., on June 2, 1938, to Ella (Jamieson) and Lester Vandergaw. The second of four siblings - Yvonne, Glenn, Andrew - Charlie attended 1st-12th grades in Lakeview, completed his B.S. at Southern Oregon University and later completed his M.A. Secondary Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Charlie and Lanette began dating in high school and were married on New Year's Eve 1958. Charlie followed Lanette to college, where he pursued his teaching certification and discovered his talent for wrestling. He went on to become a science teacher at Dimond High in a classroom filled with free-flying birds and all manner of reptiles and rodents enjoying the attention of his students. He was the head coach of Dimond's wrestling team for many years and became an influential mentor and friend to many of his team members.
An avid outdoorsman from an early age, Charlie spoke often of his dream of going to Alaska. The stars aligned when the State of Alaska began actively recruiting teachers. He managed to convince Lanette that they should take advantage of the opportunity, and in June 1964 they set out with Leslie (2 year old), Terra (10 months) and Lanette's youngest sister, Joy (12 years old), in their Ford pick-up camper, pulling a trailer filled with all their worldly possessions - but no car seats, cell phones nor GPS! They survived the Alcan Highway and arrived while Anchorage was still recovering from the 9.2 Good Friday earthquake. Undaunted by ongoing aftershocks and power outages, Charlie and Lanette rented a log cabin and quickly secured teaching positions.
The couple purchased their first home in Spenard, and eventually moved to Brentwood on Sand Lake, where their neighbors have been lifelong friends and Charlie could keep his plane in the front yard. For the past 50 years they have welcomed many travelers to their home and hosted many gatherings and celebrations including Terra and Richard's epic wedding in 1992.
Charlie was a devoted father who made sure his daughters grew up with a love of family, animals and the wilderness. Summers were spent on incredible float trips; adventuring in Prince William Sound and at the Fox Farm in Bear Cove at the head of Kachemak Bay. He instigated many family reunions and trips, and with Lanette's help, brought his parents, siblings, extended family, friends and several of his wrestlers on unforgettable adventures in Alaska, Canada, and throughout the U.S. In between these trips, Charlie was always out hunting, fishing and exploring. Every summer culminated in a sheep hunt in the Wrangell Mountains, and his trophy rams are widely admired.
Charlie grew up tying his own flies for fishing and making his own ammunition rounds for hunting. Soon after arriving in Anchorage, he formed C&L Distributors and began selling his creations. Sporting goods retailers quickly contracted with him, and his fishing tackle was sold across Southcentral Alaska. Many a weekend was spent around a long table in the living room of their small home with wrestlers, Lanette, Leslie and Terra all packaging flies and lures in assembly line fashion. Payment came in the form of free tackle and moose-dog chowder!
Charlie became a pilot while he was still teaching, and flying became one of his passions. He bought his first plane when he was 37, and loved the freedom his souped-up Super Cub provided. He flew every day that he could and enjoyed showing off his bush piloting skills to unsuspecting passengers. He survived more than one serious crash as both a pilot and passenger, including a spectacular, if minor, failed landing across the Sand Lake canal in front of his mother, family and the entire Brentwood neighborhood who never let him live it down!
After retiring from teaching at the age of 47, Charlie spent many winters in Hawaii, autumns working on ranches of friends in Texas and Montana, and spring times working on the ranch and home built by his father in Lakeview. By the late 1980s he launched himself into what would become the final chapter of his life - developing a remote parcel of land at the foot of Beluga Mountain that he and his father had staked in the 1970s. His brother Glenn helped him design and build the original cabin, and the property, which came to be known as Bear Haven, continued to be a labor of love over the next 35 years.
Charlie's original plan had been to build a hunting lodge, and at first the bear watching took place from tree blinds a few miles away. With time, his confidence grew, and he began luring the bears closer so he could view them from the cabin. Over many years, Charlie developed a keen understanding of both black and brown bear behavior and rhythms. He learned how to live and work alongside them, formed close bonds with many and spent endless hours photographing and filming them. Though his methods were controversial, Charlie's fascination with the bears never wavered, and Bear Haven never became a hunting lodge. Instead, Charlie created a beautiful homestead where he spent his days communing mostly with black and brown bears, but also with ravens, Steller's jays and the occasional moose, wolf and porcupine.
Of course, Charlie's life with the bears wasn't without its dangers, and he had the scars and stories to prove it, but over 35 seasons, he came to know them as individuals with distinct personalities, gave them names, weighed them and kept notes in a log of the comings and goings of his favorites. Several sows would bring their cubs and leave them up a tree near the cabin for hours at a time. They knew it was a safe place where the cubs wouldn't be bothered and where they might get a snack. Many came back year after year, including Grandma Bear, who brought in seven sets of cubs over 12 years, and the grizzly, Sally, and her cub Cookie, and Cookie's cub Honey Bear, all of whom surprisingly stayed together over several years.
It was a remarkable life for Charlie who enjoyed sharing the place and bear viewing with friends, family and especially with his grandchildren who grew up experiencing remote living with their beloved Papa who taught them how to fish, use a gun, spot wildlife from a plane and make s'mores around a campfire with bears looking on.
Though Bear Haven did become the focus of a British documentary, several Animal Planet episodes and an Australian 60 Minutes episode, Charlie never wanted notoriety, nor did he encourage anyone else to attempt what he was doing. He was a singular person with a passion for bears and an extraordinary talent for understanding them. Though a man of few words, he was very charismatic and an entertaining storyteller with many friends from around the world all of whom enriched his life immeasurably.
A Celebration of Life will be held on June 18, 2025, from 6-9 p.m., at the Bayshore Clubhouse in Anchorage, 3131 Amber Bay Loop.
Donations may be made in Charlie's name to the Michael J. Fox Foundation at give.michaeljfox.org; or to the Resident Hunters of Alaska (RHAK) at P.O. Box 60095, Fairbanks, AK 99706.
