Blog: Dermot Cole
Sundborg helped write Alaska's constitution
Published Monday, February 9, 2009
My column today is about the death of George Sundborg, a retired Alaska newspaperman, author and government official.
The Seattle Times noted that Sundborg wrote his own obituary, a terse two-paragraph summation of his life and family.
"He would always say, 'Son, what you need is a good copy editor,' Stephen Sundborg, president of Seattle University, told the Seattle paper. "He'd say to boil it down."
He was a product of the newspaper age in which every story was likely to be cut from the bottom, so it was important to "write tight," as editors would say.
He included a request that his family "update with any unusual circumstances, e.g. 'died in plane crash in Arizona.'"
His funeral is to be Saturday at 8 a.m. at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Seattle.
This is the boiled down account of his life, with his family filling in the date of death:
Born in San Francisco 3/25/13; died in Seattle 2/7/09. Predeceased by wife of 68 years Mary Frances Baker in 2006, and by granddaughter Lynn in 2007. Survived by sons Pierre (wife Jean), Seattle; George, Jr. (Lisa), Fairbanks; Rev. Stephen, S.J., Seattle; daughters Dr. Rosemary Hunter (Eugene McGuire), Albuquerque; Dr. Sarah Long (Dr. William), Gladwyne, PA; 13 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.
Moved to Seattle 1923. Eagle Scout, asst. scoutmaster, Troop 65, Seattle. Attended Coe School, graduated from Queen Anne H. S. '29, U of W '34. Reporter, city editor, Grays Harbor Daily Washingtonian, Hoquiam; reporter, Daily Alaska Empire, Juneau; editor, Juneau Independent; editor, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Worked during World War II for Executive Office of President and Dept. of State. Gen. mgr., Alaska Development Board, executive asst. to Territorial Governor, elected to Alaska Constitutional Convention, adm. asst. to U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska), asst. to director, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation. Founder, Alaska Visitors Assoc., founder and first pres., Alaska State Society, Wash., D.C. Awarded Dept. of Interior commendation for assistance in transferring Fort Lawton land to City of Seattle to form Discovery Park. Longtime volunteer at Children's Orthopedic Hospital, Blessed Sacrament feed-in and food bank, St. Francis House, and President of the Magnolia Bluffers. Author of "Opportunity in Alaska" and "Hail Columbia".
I couldn't keep my remarks to two paragraphs. For the rest go to http://newsminer.com/news/dermotcole
Fifty Years of Alaska Statehood, and without question Alaska has the best State Constitution of any state in the United States. We owe the members of the Alaska Constitutional Convention a standing ovation each and every time we rely on this document to guide Alaska into the future. We only have a few members of the drafters of Alaska's Constitution that are still alive. Let us make this anniversary year an opportunity to thank them before it is to late.
THANK YOU, George Sundborg for your part in drafting the Alaska Constitution ~ REST IN PEACE.
George Sundborg was a good and decent man. It was a privilege to have met him and some of the others who wrote our Constitution.
To have met folks who have actually written a Constitution is one of the rare opportunities in today's world.
In talking with Jack Coghill he told about how they would have to stop work on the Constitution to go out and start their cars during one cold stretch where the temps were about fifty below.
I recall that they were working out of a gym- and they had to kick the basketballs to one end of the room to do their work.
Only in Alaska.
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