John Wesley Abbott

Former Anchorage, Alaska, attorney John W. Abbott, 82, passed away on June 14, 2018, at Covenant Care Hospice, Sacred Heart Hospital, in Pensacola, Fla., after a brave 12-year battle with cancer and complications for radiation treatment.
Abbott was born in Los Angeles, Calif., graduated from Long Beach State College and received his law degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He drove to Alaska in his trademark Chevrolet hearse in November 1969, to serve as law clerk for Alaska Supreme Court Justice Roger Connor.
Abbott was the first Alaska Court System (ACS) deputy director and served under then Chief Justice George Boney. He served as a defense lawyer in the Alaska Public Defenders Office, and was in private practice as sole practitioner, and later as senior partner of the Law Firm of Abbott, Lynch, and Farney. He served as member of the Alaska Criminal Code Sub-Commission, and from 1976 to 1990, was appointed by the governor as chair of the Alaska Law Review and Revision Commission that revised and rewrote Alaska's Business Code, Corporations Code, Rule Against Perpetuities, among other laws and adopted the Unified Probate Code for Alaska. He returned to sole practice in 1983, and departed Anchorage for Pensacola, in 2006, for health reasons.
Abbott is survived by his wife of 36 years, Jennifer Abbott of Pensacola (the first CLE Coordinator for the Alaska Bar Association); his son, Douglas Abbott of Portland, Ore.; and was preceded in death by his daughter, Erica Johnson of Odessa, Fla.
A celebration of life will be announced in the near future.
In lieu of flowers or cards, the family asks that donations be made to Covenant Care Hospice, at https://choosecovenant.org/donors/.