William McDowell

Pioneer Alaskan and 58 year resident, William Frank (Bill) McDowell, 91, died August 27, 2013 of complications of Parkinson's and dementia at Providence Horizon House in Anchorage.

Survivors include his wife of nearly 68 years, Frances; daughter, Patricia (Jim Taylor); son, Steven (Sandra); Lawrence Jelle (Susan); sisters, Adell McKeown of South Dakota and Delores Kock of Iowa; brother, Donald (Karen) of Arizona; sisters-in-law, Mary Jo Buono and Florence Buono of Pennsylvania; many nieces and nephews and friends across the country.

Born in Bristol, South Dakota, Bill was the eldest surviving son of Encie and Samuel McDowell. A bright and enterprising young man, Bill opened his first radio repair shop in a Clark, SD hardware store at the age of 16. In time for his senior year in high school,the family moved to Elkton, SD and Bill followed his father into the automotive repair business after graduation. With an innate understanding of how most everything worked, Bill never hesitated to tear something apart, even if it meant fashioning his own tools and parts to make it better. On December 7, 1941, the 20 year old was wiring a prairie school for electricity when he learned of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Bill enlisted in the U.S. Navy the next year, after a few months of employment at the Seattle Port of Embarkation. Competing for a way to further his education, Bill received training in the relatively new technology of radar at Great Lakes Naval Training Station and then he won a slot at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. In November, 1943, Bill was assigned to the Pre-commissioning Detail of the USS Bennion (DD 662) and served as chief radar technician on the destroyer for the duration of World War II, rising to the rank of chief petty officer.

Aboard the Bennion, Bill saw action during the Saipan seizure, Tinian occupation, Palaus occupation, Leyte invasion, Mindoro landings, Lingayen Gulf landings, Iwo Jima invasion, Okinawa seizure and Third Fleet operations against Japan. Surviving the kamikaze assaults at Okinawa, Bennion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its performance on an early warning picket station, shooting down 18 enemy planes in a two-day period and preventing the Japanese from striking in force off the Okinawa Beachhead. Through the course of the war, the fighter director and radar picket ship was awarded eight battle stars.

Bill's decorations included the Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, Navy Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with one silver star and three bronze stars), World War II Victory Medal, Presidential Unit Citation of the Philippine Republic and Philippine Liberation Medal (with two bronze stars).

World War II brought people together who otherwise would never have crossed paths. Certainly shipmates hailed from all over the country but also, one day in 1943 on the streets of Washington, D.C., Bill met Frances Buono, a beauty and Pennsylvania native then working as an inspector for the Aluminum Corporation of America. They corresponded throughout the war and as soon as Bennion reached the west coast, Bill hopped a train headed east. He and Frances were married in New Jersey on December 15, 1945 and a month later, Bill became a civilian again.

With his new bride, Bill returned to Elkton and the family business, although in 1948, they established their own plumbing, heating and electrical enterprise, with Frances running the store and Bill handling calls. Their two children were born in South Dakota.

In 1955, Bill saw an opportunity with Philco and went to work as a field engineer in Philadelphia, Rome (NY) and at King Salmon and later Anchorage. He transferred to a civil service electronics engineer position at Elmendorf AFB a year later, so after the adventure of driving the ALCAN his family was able to join him for a new life in the Territory of Alaska.

Family and friends in the Lower 48 were sure Bill was headed for an igloo but, instead, home became an unfinished 4-plex off Fireweed Lane in Spenard, which was pretty rustic in the beginning while the rental units were prioritized. They lived in the same neighborhood for more than a half century. Over the years, Bill and Frances purchased, built and remodeled numerous housing units, operated rentals and invested in the growth of Anchorage. The pair was part of the community's explosive growth as blueberry bogs were turned into shopping centers, previously graveled lanes became a network of actual paved roads and the hillside soon sparkled with lights.

Ambitious and an inveterate multi-tasker, Bill also started a commercial maintenance and industrial business on a part-time basis that went full-time once he retired from civil service in 1981. He got particularly involved with Alaska Sausage and Seafood when their enterprise boomed and, with his unique skill set, spent over 30 years with them before easing up and finally retiring for good in 2002.

Without much leisure time, Bill still took a special interest in the USS Bennion Association and thoroughly enjoyed the shipmates' annual reunions held all over the country from the 1980s to this day. He also was a founding member of the Kamikazi Survivors' Association. Of course, fishing Prince William Sound, the Kenai and Susitna River drainage was a passion too.

He loved to travel and, besides seeing the South Pacific and Japan during WWII, took Frances on a cruise from Miami to Los Angeles, putting in at numerous Caribbean ports and passing through the Panama Canal for the first time since the Bennion took him to war in the Pacific. They flew to the Soviet Union and toured Moscow and Leningrad in the spring of 1988. Bill's curiosity and imagination never abated as he enjoyed trips around the country for ship reunions and family gatherings. Natural and man-made wonders fascinated him and he never saw a museum or historical sign he didn't want to read in its entirety.

Bill had a front row seat to history as Alaska transitioned from territorial status to statehood, the state recovered from the 1964 earthquake, oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay leading to construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Anchorage became a world class city and building went on non-stop in the Last Frontier. He loved Alaska and the life he built here.

His family is grateful for the gift of Bill's 91+ years; for dedicated caregivers at Birch Cottage; the friendship of helper Doug Hamilton while Bill was in assisted living; and the comfort he drew from knowing his wife is in such wonderful hands. Our father's lifetime of hard work, excellence, self-reliance and integrity has shaped our own lives and we shall miss him very much. Fair winds and following seas, Dad.

No service is being held at this time although Bill's cremains will later be laid to rest at the Ft. Richardson National Cemetery. Memorial donations in his name may be directed to the National Museum of the Pacific War Attn. Stephanie Hagee (328 E. Main Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624) or Alzheimer's Resource of Alaska (1750 Abbott Road, Anchorage 99508).