Williams family gives Central homestead to Interior Alaska Land Trust

Married for 59 years, Red and Jane recently donated 70 acres of land in Central to the Interior Alaska Land Trust so the property will be preserved for future generations. The land, just east of the intersection in Central, has big spruce and birch trees, meadows and a creek.

"I don't know how this will sound without being Pollyanna-ish," Red added, when I asked about the donation. "But you know Alaska has been awful good to me. I landed in Fairbanks with two bits in my pocket. Two bits. I spent that the next morning for a stack of cakes and a cup of coffee. And then I was stony broke."

Red, who spent that last quarter in 1940, said he thinks it would be great if others could enjoy the creek and the forest at the Central homestead the way he did.

"I'm not a do-gooder, but I do like to share," Red said.

Jane said she likes the idea that the trust will keep the land in its natural state. "They can use it to teach a lot of things or for recreation," she said.

The Williamses acquired the land in 1953 when they started a gas station in Central.

There had been no businesses in Central for five years when Red approached the N.C. Co. about buying a lot for his gas station. The parties agreed on a price, but when the N.C. suggested that he also buy an old homestead next to the lot, Red made an offer and the company accepted.

The Williamses opened Red's Roadhouse in 1953, selling groceries and fuel, at the spot where Crabb's Corner is today. Red's Roadhouse closed in 1958.

Red said he found the business was interfering with his fly fishing, not to mention his airplane business, Arctic Circle Hot Springs Flying Service, and his trucking business.

The Williamses lived in Central from 1948 to the late 1950s, aside from the time when he worked as a contract pilot during the Korean War, flying military aircraft from California to Japan.

Red was born in Kentucky and grew up in Cincinnati. Jane grew up in Dayton and they met after college. Red earned a bachelor's degree at Miami of Ohio and wanted to become a lawyer, while Jane studied education and science at Otterbein.

Red came to Fairbanks a year before World War II, looking for a way to earn money to pay for law school.

"I wound up in Fairbanks, but I never got to law school," Red said.

Red found a job on a mine near where the Gilmore tracking station is today. He came to town at the end of the mining season to live in a boarding house where the Northward Building would later be built. Then an educational opportunity presented itself.

"I was paying $68 a month at this boarding house and if I enrolled at the university I could stay for $45 a month, so I went to the university," he said. He became a college senior for the second time and earned a teaching certificate.

He also took a civilian pilot training program through the university and earned his pilot's license. "The catch was if you took the course, which was free, that you signed a paper that you would apply to become a military pilot. You know, you're young and you sign anything. I got my private license at the university and forgot all about it."

"The next summer Jane and I were going to get married and I had a contract to teach school at Wiseman. And I got this letter from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I wound up marrying Jane when I graduated from pilot training and we got back to Alaska in 1945."

They were married March 16, 1942, in Phoenix. Red became a military flight instructor and flew in the Pacific during World War II.

After the war, Red pursued many types of work in Alaska. He explains his unusual career track by saying he was easily bored with everything except his wife.

He was a teacher, pilot, school administrator, truck driver, TV engineer and businessman. He also served three terms on the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board.

Jane raised five kids and taught biology at Lathrop High School. Then she became a department head in media services at the University of Alaska.

Red quit flying commercially in 1960 at the age of 45 and went back to teaching full time. They both retired in 1975.

The third redheaded child in his family, H.O. was known as Red since high school. He was born Homer O'Ron Williams in 1915.

"It came to me from the doctor who delivered three redheaded kids. He was redheaded and his name was Homer O'Ron Nichols," Red said.

"If my wife calls me Homer I know I'm in trouble."

There will be an annual meeting and potluck dinner of the Interior Alaska Land Trust to honor H.O. and Jane Williams Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Pioneer Hall in Alaskaland.

Dermot Cole , Nov.11,2001