William A. Egan
William Allen Egan (October 8, 1914 – May 6, 1984) was an American Democratic politician. He served as the first governor of the State of Alaska from January 3, 1959, to 1966 and 1970 to 1974, as well as a shadow U.S. Senator from Alaska Territory from 1956 to 1959. Born in Valdez, Alaska, Egan is one of only two governors in the state's history (along with Bill Walker) to have been born in Alaska. He was the Democratic nominee in the first five gubernatorial elections (1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, and 1974).
Bill Egan
Waino Hendrickson (as Territorial Governor)
Seat established
May 6, 1984 (aged 69)
Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.
Neva McKittrick (1940–1984)
2, including Dennis
Early childhood and adulthood[edit]
The child of a working-class mining family of six children in Valdez, Egan was raised by his mother, Cora (Allen), following his father William's death in an avalanche in 1920.[1] By age 10, Egan was working in a local cannery, helping to support his struggling family. Thanks to the lack of driving laws in the Alaska Territory during the 1920s, Egan learned to drive at an early age, shuttling tourists around during summer months. By the age of 14, Egan was driving dump trucks for the Alaska Road Commission. Following his graduation as a valedictorian from Valdez High School in 1932, he began an interest in politics.
Egan's godfather, Anthony Dimond, a local Valdez lawyer, two-time mayor and member of the Alaska Senate, ran as a Democrat for the territory's nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives the same year. Despite the position's inability to vote due to Tennessee Plan, a nonvoting delegate could address other House members and lobby for both bills and statehood. Dimond won the race, introducing the young Egan, who viewed Dimond as his mentor, to territorial and federal politics. Dimond would send copies of the Congressional Record back to Egan in Valdez for him to read.
Later life[edit]
Following Egan's departure from the governorship in 1974, Egan retired from public and political life. He died 10 years following leaving office on May 6, 1984, at the age of 69 from lung cancer.[3] His son, Dennis Egan, served as the mayor of Juneau, Alaska from 1995 to 2000, and as a state senator from 2009 to 2019.
