David Ring

David Bruce Ring, 81, of Anchorage died April 4, 2008, at Providence Alaska Medical Center. He was surrounded by loved ones.
A viewing will be at noon, with a celebration of life service at 2 p.m., on Saturday at the Pioneer Hall, 612 F St. Private family interment will be at a later date.
David was born Oct. 3, 1926, in Englewood, Colo., to Annie Rosetta and Marvin Archie Ring. David's early years were spent in Colorado on a farm between Limon and Matheson. David moved to Ashland, Ore., with his family in 1935. He developed his strong work ethic working the family farm -- milking cows, putting up hay, planting the orchard, tending vegetable crops and feeding the pigs. David was especially fond of raising pigs. One year he took a prize pig to the county fair.
David attended Neil Creek and Belleview Schools. He graduated in 1944 and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. Serving the last part of World War II stationed in the Philippines, Sgt. Ring spent his free time buying and selling monkeys in the monkey business. Upon returning home, he used his G.I. benefits to attend Southern Oregon College. It was there he met and married Jean Marion Truman of Coos Bay, Ore., on Aug. 7, 1949. Dave left college in 1951. Drawn by the promise of the Last Frontier, he and Jean drove up the Alaska Highway. They started their 50-plus-year Alaska adventure camping at Rabbit Creek in Anchorage. Within days of arriving, Dave went to work in the roofing trade, for $3.25 an hour, or about twice what he had been earning in Oregon.
"Dad always said Alaska had been good to him," his family recalled. "A man's man who never met a stranger, Dad proved a homestead on Point Mackenzie and helped 28 other families do the same. He and his bride commercial fished in upper Cook Inlet and raised three daughters, then raised three grandchildren after the loss of their eldest daughter. His interests were varied and extensive. He was involved in contracting, real estate and salvage businesses. He could not stay away from auctions and he loved big engines of the one-cylinder variety. He was active in the drive for statehood, which extended to the selection of state lands in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and was a founder of the movement for a Knik Arm Bridge."
David is survived by his daughters, Donna Powell and Bonnie Vaughn of Anchorage; brother, Marvin Ring of Corvallis, Ore.; sisters, Peggy Gilley of Ashland and Rosemary Johnson of Redding, Calif.; and nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Jean Ring, and daughter, Diane Thoerner.
Memorial donations may be sent to the Pioneers of Alaska Scholarship Fund at Men' s Igloo 15,
P.O. Box 101041, Anchorage 99510.
A memorial plaque will be placed at the Pioneers of Alaska at Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.
Arrangements are with Anchorage Funeral Home and Crematory.