Robert C. Donahue

1951 - 2019

Skagway's Buckwheat Donahue, a man larger than all of us in size and spirit, journeyed around the bend on October 14, at age 68. He was born Robert Carlin Donahue Jr. on
August 16, 1951, in Oklahoma City, and ironically died in the city of his birth, after spending much of his life in Skagway.
At a young age, Buckwheat's family moved from Perry, Oklahoma, to Denver, Colorado. He graduated high school at St. John's Military School in Kansas, and studied history at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and also at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
As a young man, he found himself working as a "land man" for independent oil companies in Wyoming and other western states. He eventually started his own Buckwheat Oil and Gas, based in Denver.About 1984, Buckwheat and a friend came up to Cordova to paint houses. Afterwards, he mistakenly landed in Skagway after missing a Juneau ferry stop (it was a long night in the bar), and his northern legend began. He vowed to return and he did, a year later, buying a home.
With his dog Leo, who had a hot dog tab at the popcorn wagon, they joined the cast of characters on Broadway. He found work as bartender/cook and summer entertainer in various shows. He recited Robert Service poetry and became so good that he eventually created his own, "Buckwheat At Your Service." He punctuated each show with a long howl, welcoming the audience to join in. In the winter he was popular with Elderhostel groups coming through town, and he also landed on several Alaska-themed TV programs. He even drove Martha Stewart around Alaska/Yukon in an RV. He loved the outdoors and was an avid hiker and paddler. He co-founded the outfitter Packer Expeditions and paddled many Yukon rivers with friends.
His biggest legacy is the Buckwheat Ski Classic, started in 1987 as a "way to get more women to come to Skagway in the winter," he famously said. It grew to become a huge annual event drawing more than 400 cross-country skiers a year. He also co-founded the Yukon River Quest and was the starter for the Klondike Road Relay. All events began with a howl.His involvement in these events helped propel him to the job of Skagway's tourism director in 1999. The Skagway Marathon and the North Words Writers Symposium were two more events he created. He served for 16 years and received the Denali Award from the Alaska Tourism Industry Association in 2010. He was even prouder of organizing a Guinness World Record Egg Toss in Skagway on July 4, 2008, with 1,162 tossers. The record still stands.
Then came this: In the middle of his tourism tenure, he received permission to take a year-long sabbatical to raise money for Skagway's Dahl Memorial Clinic, an ambitious journey by foot and paddle across North America. Buckwheat was a diabetic and had suffered a heart attack about a year prior to the trip. He had stopped smoking and rarely drank any more, and he wanted to get healthy and do more good. He started out from Miami, Florida, on October 1, 2005, and walked 4,600 miles, reaching the Teslin River in the Yukon on June 8, 2006. From there he paddled down to the Yukon River and out to Kotlik, Alaska, another 2,200 miles, reaching the Bering Sea in early August. After flights to Nome and Whitehorse, he set off for the final leg of his "Heartbeat Trail." On September 8, 2006, he walked into Skagway. The newspaper stopped the presses, the school let out early, traffic halted on a busy summer day, and all the children howled and followed him down Broadway to the AB Hall. His shoes were bronzed and hung in the new clinic building, for which he raised nearly $75,000. Buckwheat retired in May 2015. His post-retirement journey took him north for a while last year to the Anchorage area, and eventually to his original home state of Oklahoma, at the behest of friends and family who got him in an affordable assisted living situation for his health. Just as he was finally getting settled in September, his health began to further deteriorate, and his journey took a turn toward that final bend. He passed on peacefully.
Buckwheat is survived by his niece, Kelly Sterling Cunningham, who followed him to Alaska, and her son Matthew Cunningham, both of Juneau; cousins, Barbara Bigham, of Oklahoma City; Maudie (and Mike) Kuns, of Edmond, Okla, and Kristen Kuns, of Oklahoma City, and Leslie (and Bill) McFarland, of Houston, Texas; and sister, Sara Donahue, of Idaho Springs, Colo. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Carlin Donahue and Eileen Seevers Donahue. He leaves on to howl many, many close friends from Oklahoma, and Colorado, to Alaska, and the Yukon.Family and friends will be planning a series of memorials for Buckwheat in the future. As he closed every correspondence, "Take care and keep on howling!"