- George Vaara
George Vaara (1899-1976) was Mayor of
Anchorage, Alaska from 1940 to 1941.Biography
George Vaara was born May 26, 1899 in
Ada, Minnesota . He moved to Anchorage in 1923 and worked as a clerk in aPiggly Wiggly grocery store. In the 1930s, he opened a notions store called "Vaara Varieties".Vaara was elected mayor in 1940 in the midst of a housing shortage brought on by the arrival of military personnel preceding the construction of
Fort Richardson . He served a single term.Vaara built a
Pepsi-Cola plant on Fifth Avenue in 1943, selling it fifteen years later.In 1958, Vaara made a bid for nomination as the Republican candidate for Governor of the new state of Alaska. He withdrew several days later, citing a "heated controversy" between factions of the party.
Vaara moved to
Seattle, Washington in 1960. He died at his home in Seattle on July 26, 1976, following a year of incapacitation due to astroke .References
* Citation
title = Former Mayor Dies In Seattle
newspaper = Anchorage Times
pages = 2
year = 1976
date = July 28, 1976
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