Alex Combs

Alex Combs, 88, died in Homer's hospital from a heart attack in Halibut Cove on May 22, 2008. His partner, Diana Conway, son Sam and daughter-in-law Jayna were by his side.
Alex Duff Combs was born in Hazard, Ky., in 1919. As a youth he read the tales of the north by Jack London. Sports and art also influenced the young A.D., as he was known in Kentucky.
A.D. joined the Navy after being a shipfitter in Newport News, Va., and spent World War II as a deep sea salvage diver in Italy, where he would return to visit and live.
Combs helped bring modern art to Alaska when his family left the comfortable confines of Philadelphia and a professorship at Temple University to drive the Alaska Highway to Anchorage in 1955.
Alex went door-to-door selling his pottery and then became the superintendent of art for the Anchorage School District.
Alex continued working for the School District until 1962, when he joined Anchorage Community College, where he spent the next 27 years teaching art. The next phase of life began in Halibut Cove after he retired in 1979.
Alex gave up ceramics with old age, but continued painting to the day he died. An unfinished canvas scene of coastal Alaska rests on his easel in his studio where he spent the last few years painting.
Alex is survived by his partner of 28 years, Diana Conway; son, Samuel, his wife Jayna and their daughter, Alexa; son, Jonathan, his wife Barbara, their daughters, Kelly and Allison; son David, his daughter Annalise; and Diana's sons, Andrew and Jason Berkowitz.
Alex was preceded in death by his older brother, Glenn, and former wife, Muriel.
"Alex Combs - Remembrance of a Long and Artful Life" will be at 7 p.m. Friday, June 13, at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and is open to all.
Alex's ashes will be interred at a private cemetery overlooking Kachemak Bay in Halibut Cove on Father's Day, June 15.