Michael Cusack M.D.

1940 - 2019

"I did it my way"
Michael Leary Cusack was born on Sept. 3, 1940, to Vera and "Doc" Patrick Cusack. He was the middle child of 11 in the mighty Irish Cusack Clan of nine boys and two girls raised on a farm in Peoria, Ill.
Michael attended Catholic elementary and middle school and later, Spaulding High School in Peoria, graduating in 1958, playing basketball and baseball.
After undergraduate schooling at Marquette University, he met the love of his life at University of Illinois Medical School while she was attending Nursing School at University of Illinois Chicago medical school, Bonnie Lou Hering, and they were married in Thornton, Ill., in 1965, until her death in 1992.
He had seven children: Katelyn, Brooke, Casey, Jenny (Tony) Hedley, Kimberly (Pat) Tolan, Michael Jr. and Kelly Millen. He also leaves behind his beloved beagle, Mr. Beans, and nine grandchildren whom he treated like his own: Mackenzie, Jessica and Luke Millen, Tristen, Jamie and Patrick Tolan, and Alexis, Jackson and Olivia Hedley. It was a well-known fact that his children and grandchildren were his greatest joy in life. Doc also opened his home and his fishing lodge to many extended family friends, hockey players, etc. When he heard that anyone needed help, he was the first one to step in and open his arms.
In 1969, after a call from a good friend, Leonard Ferucci, M.D., and with the help of his brother, Jack, he packed up his very pregnant wife Bonnie and his two small children and made that trek up the Alcan Highway to Alaska - and never left. He joined the Army Reserve shortly after his arrival which took him places as far north as Barrow, Alaska. With his love of the outdoors and hunting and fishing, he also became a private pilot and later held the Pope and Young World Record for Moose in 1973. The moose is still on display at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, just after you exit security for your flight. Check out the Facebook and Instagram sites for "Moosfies" and tag your photos on Moosfie Alaska or @moosfie.alaska.
After building a family cabin on the Naknek River in King Salmon, Alaska, and inviting all his friends and entire hockey teams, he quickly realized that he needed more rooms and that little cabin on the river turned into a world renown fishing lodge, Mike Cusack's King Salmon Lodge. He would practice medicine from Monday to Thursday and fly to the lodge for the weekend and colorfully entertain his guests all weekend long.
Mike was also known for his love of Christmas as trees and Christmas dolls adorned every corner of his house. Angels and chariots flying high with a giant nativity scene that remained all year long. He would not rest until the last string of tinsel was placed, ever so carefully, as he explained to anyone standing nearby, exactly how to drape it over the limb.
He and his wife Bonnie started the first traveling competitive hockey association in 1979, the Alaska Allstars Hockey Association, and he continued to stay involved until 2016. It was his passion to help kids achieve college scholarships by traveling outside Alaska for the first time to get the exposure they needed. He also sponsored teams from Russia to play against the U.S. National Team at the New Sullivan Arena in Anchorage after the 1980 Olympic (Miracle on Ice).
Doc lived life to the fullest; he rode life about as hard as anyone you could imagine. He was one-of-a-kind and a master of all things that he touched. His mind was big and his creations – a legacy for all.
The past year was a true gift of time for the Cusack family as he struggled with esophageal cancer - stories and memories and goodbyes and tears. We are most thankful to have had the opportunity to spend it with him, caring for him in the loving way that he took care of everyone around him for 78 great years. Mike left a mark on many, many people that this world will never forget.
A wake will be held at Janssen's Evergreen Memorial Chapel on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, from 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. Funeral services will be held the following day with the rosary at 1:30 p.m., and funeral service at 2 p.m., at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Anchorage. Following the service, Michael will be laid to rest at 4 p.m. at the Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery. A Celebration of Life, "Christmas in Heaven," will be held on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m., at the Ted Stevens International Airport, Bill Sheffield Railroad Depot.