- Anton Anderson
Anton Anderson (1892-1960) was chief engineer of the
Alaska Railroad Citation
title=Obituary: Jean Graves
newspaper=Anchorage Daily News
page=B9
date=October 29, 2003
url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13454121_ITM ] and served asMayor of Anchorage ,Alaska from 1956 to 1958. He has been called "Mr. Alaska Railroad".Biography
Anderson was born in
Moonlight, New Zealand to a Swedish father and an Irish mother. In 1914, he moved to theUnited States to work as a surveyor inHoquiam, Washington . He passed an engineering examination atSeattle University before moving to the recently founded city ofAnchorage, Alaska to work for theAlaska Engineering Commission . In 1927, he married Alma Menge, with whom he had three daughters: Jean, Patricia and ShelbyIn the 1930s, Anderson worked on the
Matanuska Colonization Project , building infrastructure to support the settlement of theMatanuska Valley . DuringWorld War II , he served in the theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers . He also participated in the construction of theEklutna River hydroelectric dam. In 1951, he was elected President of theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers .Citation
last=Nyman
first=Frank
title=A history lesson: engineering in Alaska has come a long way
newspaper=Alaska Business Monthly
year=2004
date=February 1, 2004
url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13454121_ITM ]Anderson served on the Anchorage City Council before being appointed in 1956 to complete the term of Mayor
Ken Hinchey . Anderson was elected the following year, but ill health forced him to resign early.Anderson died in 1960. In 1976, the tunnel from Whittier to
Portage, Alaska , which he had overseen, was renamed theAnton Anderson Memorial Tunnel .References
; General
* [http://www.alaskahistory.org/anchorage1910/detail.aspx?ID=68 Biography at the Cook Inlet Historical Society] ; Specific
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