Kenneth John Lobe

1943 - 2026

Kenneth John "Kenny" Lobe, a 39 year resident of Cordova, Alaska passed away Sunday, January 4, 2026 at the wise age of 82.

Born August 6, 1943 in Ely, Minnesota to Jennie M. (Jokela) and John A. Lobe, he grew up with the endless spoils of fishing the lakes and hunting rabbits, always with a beagle at his side. He worked at several fishing resorts as a teenager and graduated from Ely Memorial High School in 1961, went on to work for the local USFS and attended Vermillion Community College. Together with his dad, they were pioneers in introducing snowmobiles to Northern MN - repairing and building prototypes and becoming early dealers of Rupp, Polaris and Arctic Cat. Kenny joined the US Army after high school and served as a lab tech stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

When he returned to Ely, he began working on his private pilot license and what would become a life long adventure. He married Liza Schuldt in 1972 and raised two children, Samantha and Marcus, employed as a machinist for Reserve Mining and building the family home on White Iron Lake. After he earned his pilot's license, the family made trips in a Cessna 150 from the Ely Municipal Airport to the annual Oshkosh Fly-In air show, camping under the wings on the airfield. Kenny became a licensed flight instructor and held several different aviation-related certifications. When Reserve Mining shut down in the early 1980's, work took him to Phillips, Wisconsin working as a machinist at Phillips Plastics, commuting weekends until the family moved down in 1984.

Alaska, The Last Frontier, finally came calling in 1986 with the promise of all the flying a bush pilot could dream of and hardly resist, he drove the family up the Alcan to Cordova. Kenny flew for an old friend from Ely, Pat Magie and his company, Alaskan Wilderness Outfitting Company for many years, taking hunters and fishermen to remote cabins on Prince William Sound, the famed Copper River Delta and mountainside lakes. Kenny eventually was flying year round, logging thousands of hours for the local air services down at Eyak Lake - Chitina Air Service, Cordova Air Service and Fishing & Flying, delivering mail, supplies and support to commercial fishermen, government fish counters and surveyors of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. When his most favorite of all planes, deHavilland Beavers, needed to be relocated to Alaska, he loved that adventure and flew them back. In the late 1990's and early 2000's, Kenny made several winter-over trips to the South Pole where he kept the research station running like a well-oiled machine.

When it was time to hang up the wings, Kenny was the facilities manager at the Cordova Community Hospital. When he retired a decade or so ago, he had discovered he had all these woodworking projects he could finally finish, or start. Every single one he completed was done with perfection - measured twice and cut once. Dad was the always on-call electrician, plumber, handyman that knew everything and could fix anything.

Kenny is preceded in death by his parents Jennie M. & John A. Lobe, sister Sharon M. Pierce and the mother of his children, Liza C. Schuldt. He is survived by his daughter Samantha J. Whetsell of Eagle River, AK and grandchildren Brendan, Jacob and Aidan and great-granddaughter Kendall, son Marcus J. Lobe of Anchorage, AK and grandchildren Liberty and Gage, his sister Jeanette (Bernie) Palcher of Ely, MN, nephew John (Leeann) Palcher with children Victor and Raymond of Nisswa, MN, niece Laura (Peter) Eng with children Mason and Marie of Esko, MN, in addition to many cousins and his beloved beagle, Bandit.

A celebration of life is planned for this summer in Cordova.