Jan Rudolf Masek

1942 - 2018

Jan Masek died at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska. He was 76 years old. Jan was born in Prague, Czech Republic, where he graduated from high school. He then attended the International Hotel & Restaurant College in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, and served two years in the Czechoslovakia Air Force, serving until 1963.
Jan spent the next decades in the visitor industry, managing hotel and restaurant facilities. He began his career in Prague, managing the Prague Motel Stop. During that time, he also became a grand prix race car driver and finished second in the Grand Prix, Czechoslovakia. He escaped Czechoslovakia in 1967, by crashing through a border check point in his race car.
Once free, he began managing hotel and restaurant facilities around the globe. They included the Hotel Kronnen in Heidelberg, West Germany, the Regensburg Restaurant in Munich and others.
He came to America in 1972 to manage the Hotel Bear in Lyons, Colo., and later, the Bohemian Cave in Boulder, Colo. Then it was off to Lagos, Nigeria, and from there to manage Bloody Mary's Restaurant in Bora Bora, Tahiti.
Then it was to Alaska, where he managed Stuckagain Heights Restaurant in Anchorage, Chena Hot Springs Resort in Fairbanks and the New Dillingham Hotel. He also served a stint as business development director for Golden Horn Lodge in the Bristol Bay area of southwest Alaska.
Jan was an Iditarod sled dog musher from 1981 through 1988, and also spent several years in land development north of Willow, Alaska. He lived at Rustic Wilderness with his wife Beverly Jerue Masek, who became a well known Iditarod sled dog musher, and a prominent Native leader, serving 10 years in the Alaska House of Representatives representing the Mat-Su Valley. They later divorced.
Jan lived his dreams while in remote Alaska with his dog team, and in great cities around the world. He received many commendations during his life, and held important positions, including head of the Alaska Delegation to the 1981 and 1985 Presidential Inaugural Parades. He was an interesting man who led an interesting life.
He leaves his son, Michael Masek of Willow; and wife, Marlan Joanna Cruz, Arboleria, of Columbia.