Charles Warren Tryck

1919 - 2017

Charles Warren Tryck, Pioneer Alaskan, patriarch, loving husband, father, engineer, died on April 13, 2017, of complications relating to old age. He was 97.
Charles Warren Tryck was born on Dec. 9, 1919, in Wasilla, Alaska, to Oscar and Blanche Tipping Tryck. He passed away peacefully at Providence Medical Center where he was lovingly tended by his children, Kathryn, Suzanne, Keith, Douglas and James; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; his caregivers; and the hospital staff.
Charles Tryck was a son of the gold rush. His father, Oscar Tryck, and his uncle, Charlie, left National Mine, Mich., and hard times to follow the trail to Alaska, crossing into the Territory at Eagle on the Yukon in 1902. Dawson, Rampart, Fairbanks, Tenderfoot, the Richardson Trail - Oscar mined, freighted with horses, cut firewood, built roads - he did the things men did depending on when they arrived on the scene of a strike. In 1911, Oscar and his team of Belgian horses were on the sternwheeler "Julia B," the first boat down the Yukon, to the Ruby strike, where the Tryck brothers mined on Trail Creek. In 1914, Oscar traveled to Michigan and married Blanche Tipping, his childhood sweetheart, and brought her back to Ruby.
In 1916, with the claims mined out, Oscar and Blanche moved to Knik, on Cook Inlet, the supply port for the gold mines in the Talkeetna Mountains. The Trycks bought a home for $100 and Oscar freighted to the mines with horses over the old Carle Road. When the Alaska Railroad reached the Carle Road in 1917, the ice-free port of Seward replaced Knik, ice blocked in winter, as the port of supply. A townsite auction was held at the railroad crossing in June, where Oscar bought a lot in the new town, to be named Wasilla. The Trycks dismantled their Knik home, freighted it to Wasilla and had it back up by fall. The Trycks visited Michigan that winter and Miss Orah Dee Clark, who began her distinguished Alaska teaching career in Wasilla, lived in the Tryck home.
On returning to Wasilla, Oscar became the General Foreman for the Alaska Road Commission, where he was tasked with making the early horse trails and wagon roads passable for motor cars. These roads have become today's Matanuska valley road infrastructure.
Charles Warren Tryck was born in Wasilla in 1919, in Bob Hatcher's cabin, joining brother, William, born in Ruby. One of Charlie's earliest memories was at the Wasilla railway station in 1922, where he fretfully dodged President Harding's kiss, to his mother's horror, during a stop in Harding's trip up the line to drive the golden spike.
Wasilla was a frontier town with a Main Street and board walks, stretching all of 200 yards along both sides of the road, from the tracks toward the mines. Folks grew what they could, traded locally, stayed or ate at the Roadhouse, got what they needed at Herning's or ordered it from "outside." Once a year, Trycks took the train down to Anchorage to see the dentist and doctor. Charlie remembers the first time he saw electric lights. Anchorage was all lit up and he was awestruck.
Charlie spent his boyhood summers at his father's road construction camps. He picked berries, hunted spruce hens and rode with his dad to inspect the work. He liked most the camps above timberline where there were no mosquitoes.
At Halloween the kids made jack-o'-lanterns out of turnips. They skated on Lake Lucille. Tryck brothers had a dog team, but their two dogs were not enough for a "real" team, so one year they rounded up the town's pets to fill out their team. The boys proudly mushed their team around Wasilla long enough for their neighbors to see their pets go by and that was the end of that. Twice a month Wasilla gathered at the community hall. The Commissioner played the violin, his wife played the piano and everybody danced. At Christmas the women made sure every child received a gift. Nobody had any real money, but they didn't know it, and life was good.
There was as yet no high school in Wasilla, and Charlie attended his freshman year, 1932-33, in Matanuska, a railroad construction town ten miles distant. He and his brother drove back and forth in the family's Model A Ford. When the boys reached Matanuska in winter, they emptied the radiator and poured the motor oil into a can they kept warm behind the stove in the school house. When it was time to drive home, they put hot water and warm oil back in the pick-up and off they went. They were on their own, dressed warm and had shovels in the back.
Charlie's first job was cutting and hauling firewood out the Bogard Road with his brother, using Jimmy Henson's horses for the heavy lifting. He remembered sharpening up pitch fork tines and "forking" salmon out of Cottonwood Creek to sell for dog food.
It was a big deal when the farm "colonists" arrived in the Matanuska Valley in 1935. The Wasilla kids piled onto the back of Cadwallader's stake-bed truck to go meet the train and, for the boys, to check out the new girls. The Wasilla boy's basketball team hosted railbelt opponents in the community hall lighted by four big Coleman Lanterns hung from the rafters. Wasilla could barely field a team and always lost. Charlie looked forward to playing the team at the BIA school at Eklutna because they had electricity, flush toilets and showers. Charlie Tryck graduated in Wasilla High School's class of 1936, along with Ray Bergman and two girls from Palmer.
In 1937, Charlie went to Fairbanks and the University of Alaska. The University had 300 students. He remembered most were from "outside" and tough times and studied hard to improve their prospects. Charlie worked summers driving thaw points for the FE Company dredge on Goldstream Creek, for Dean Patty at Woodchopper and as pump foreman at Livengood. He graduated in 1941, with a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering.
Charlie and Molly Chamberlin met in Fairbanks in the summer of 1940, following her high school graduation in Anchorage. Charlie was in from Livengood to get a tooth fixed. The two met at a dance where Molly broke the heel off her shoe. Charlie found the heel, put a stamp on it and mailed it to her.
Shortly after graduation, Charlie moved to Anchorage to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the military build up preceding World War II. He and fellow grad, Art Reinikka, lived in the loft of a barn at 9th and A. Molly worked for the Army Finance Department. They dated.
Molly and Charlie were married in March 1942, at the Episcopal Church on 5th and F Street. Art Reinakka was best man. They didn't go on a honeymoon, the war was on, but in the fall of '42 they spent a week hiking in the hills near Independence Mine. Molly remembered it was warm and lovely.
During his time with the Corps, 1941-1946, Charlie participated in the design of a great number of projects - from Campbell Airstrip to fortifications, barracks, streets, even a prisoner of war camp - the trappings of a military base at war.
From 1946 to 1953, Charlie was employed by the City of Anchorage as Assistant City Engineer, then City Engineer/Director of Public Works. While with the City, the first large public works program was implemented: much of downtown Anchorage was paved, Ship Creek was tapped for City water and major sewer installations were completed. A Uniform Building Code was adopted, which was credited with minimizing damage and loss of life during the 1964 Earthquake.
In 1953, Charlie entered private engineering practice with Rutledge, Johnston, Tryck, which over time became Tryck, Nyman and Hayes (TNH). TNH projects include the north/south runway at Anchorage International Airport; the master sewer development plan for Anchorage; Unalaska's cargo dock; Alaska's first floating breakwater at Ketchikan; and the Kotzebue airport where the firm pioneered the use of styrofoam insulation to control heat transfer in runway and road fill sections and insulated pipe, which is now used throughout Alaska in water and sewer systems. TNH designed Anchorage's first public parking garage, the "C" Street overpass to Government Hill, the first paving projects in Seward and Palmer and major projects for the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. Charlie served as senior and managing partner until his retirement in 1984.
The Tryck family grew, starting in a tiny apartment during the war, located where City Hall is now, to the Holmes Apartments at 13th and I with sons, Keith and Doug (the phone number was Green 94), to a house on H street, with the additions of James and Kathryn, and to the family home on West 13th with daughter, Suzanne, completing the family. During this time Anchorage grew too, from a dusty railroad town into a modern metropolis of 300,000.
For the Tryck family life was an adventure, whether on a picnic in the valley, a holiday weekend at Big Lake, a safari across Alaska or New Year's at Alyeska. As the children grew, these adventures transitioned into treks with individual members of the family by plane, train, automobile and boat. Wherever it was, Molly took the lead and Charlie made it happen.
In retirement, Charlie and Molly spent the winter months in Hawaii. Charlie was an avid reader and kept abreast of current events. In later years, they stayed closer to home, where they enjoyed their friends and extended family. In 2012, Molly and Charlie celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
Charlie served on the City of Anchorage Charter Commission, was the first Chairman of the State of Alaska's Planning Commission and served two terms on the Municipal Board of Ethics. He enjoyed civic activities including: Rotary International, Elks, Pioneers of Alaska and the Cook Inlet Historical Society. He was the first recipient of the University of Alaska's E.B. Rice Award, given for engineering achievement, and in 1997 received University of Alaska's Alumni Achievement Award for Professional Excellence.
Charlie was preceded in death by his parents; his beloved wife, Molly; and his brother, William. He is survived by his five children, Keith Tryck (Laurie), Douglas Tryck, James Tryck, Kathryn Tryck (Michael Dieni) and Suzanne Tryck; 10 grandchildren, Charlotte Tryck, April Tryck Hamels, James Tryck, Jennafer Tryck, Christopher Tryck, Alexandra Bowles Nenahlo, Charles E. Tryck, Jordan Dieni, Olivia Dieni and Molly Dieni; and four great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
A Ceremony of Life will be held at the Foredeck in the Hotel Captain Cook on Saturday, May 20, 2107, at 4 p.m.