Judy Cooper

Had the north country echoed with mournful howls of sled dogs on June 2nd of this year, friends of Judy Cooper would not have been surprised. On that day, Cooper passed away at her home in Gustavus at 84 in the company of her beloved dogs. 
Judy Cooper was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1939, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. She graduated from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, majoring in biology. In 1964, Judy joined the Peace Corps and served in Bolivia where she was involved with public health programs, dealing with such diseases as tuberculosis and malaria.
Judy worked in Ashville, North Carolina for a year while in a VISTA type program serving disadvantaged Appalachian families. She would have stayed longer but suffered an aneurism prompting a move back to Wisconsin to stay with her parents in the family home while recovering.
She moved to Alaska in 1968 to take a job in Hoonah as director of the Parent Child Center. In the early 1970s, Judy took a job with a Juneau Parks and Recreation program for street children. Soon after moving to Juneau, she attended a workshop given by Dale DeArmond, a wood block artist. Leaving the workshop she told a friend, "I'm going to do this for the rest of my life." True to her word, she never stopped producing prints, specializing in linoleum block printing. Soon she was displaying and selling her work in downtown Juneau at the Artists Co-op on South Franklin, which she co-founded. The shop is still in operation.
Not long after becoming a resident of Juneau, she joined the Laborers Union, and went through their training program in Anchorage. She appealed to the union and was singlehandedly responsible for the rule change that allowed women to be flaggers. Soon, she joined the workers on the Alaska Pipeline. 
After pioneering as a woman on the pipeline, Judy took a cross-country ski trip in the Yukon and was introduced to skijoring and dog sledding. She never looked back. Judy bought a cabin in Tagish, Yukon Territory, becoming a true "snowbird," leaving her home in Juneau during the winter months for Tagish with her dogs, skijoring then dog sledding. Her ambitions exceeded circumstances at Tagish, so she moved on to the "Mushing Capital of the World," Two Rivers outside of Fairbanks, where she maintained a dog lot, eventually tending to well over 50 sled dogs. She bred dogs for skills as well as color and named her kennel Earth Tone Huskies. 
Her neighbors on Starr Hill, where she lived for over 20 years, remember her as an active member of the community, including as a dancer and musician in the Juneau Folk Ensemble. Judy was known to initiate and pay for public artwork like the metal figure of a nun feeding chickens at the entrance to the Chicken Yard. She also contributed funds and labor to US Forest Service Cabin at Eagle Glacier 25 miles north of downtown. One friend recalled that it was Judy who successfully petitioned the Alaska Board of Game to limit trapping in the vicinity of Juneau's main trail system, saving many local pets from unintentional harm. 
Judy had visited Gustavus and Glacier Bay in the early 1970s, camping in Muir Inlet.  Returning in 2013 in an era of ferries between Hoonah and Gustavus, she was thrilled to meet adult parents and grandparents she had known years before as children in Hoonah.  She was welcomed into the community of Gustavus by many friends she met years before in Juneau. She sold her cards at local markets and loved attending potlucks and community dances.  She defended the lives of trees and fed the birds.
In Gustavus, she is remembered for participating in virtually every parade with her closest pet, Osa, a Siberian like all her dogs. She dog sledded there when winter weather permitted, but when conditions did not permit snow sledding, she would often exercise her team by hooking the harness to her Geo Tracker, putting it in neutral, and mushing her dogs along the level Rink Creek Road and around the gravel pits of Gustavus.
As Judy neared the end of her life and could not keep up with her dog team, she began gifting them to friends, each of whom received full documentation of the dog's ancestry. 
She is survived by her sister, Gail Buschke of Cross Plains, Wisconsin; cousin Tom Folsom of Boulder Junction, Wisconsin; Bob Folsom of Marco Island, Florida; nieces Kirsten Davidson of Becker, Minnesota; Alicia Schwab of Plymouth, Minnesota; nephews Tobin Buschke of Cross Plains, Wisconsin, Kyle Broenkow of Pebble Beach, California, and Martin Broenkow of Rohnert Park, California; and five great-nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, Helen (Folsom) and Garrett Cooper, her sister Sue Broenkow, and cousins, Hugh Folsom, Jack Folsom, and Peg (Folsom) Coty.  
In the weeks before Judy passed, she attended one community dance during which she was shuttled down the avenue of friends during the Virginia Reel, holding onto the hands of children and adults, beaming with her joyous smile
Judy's was a good life, well lived.  Friends received the joy of her friendship and good nature, her grasp of independence for all women, her great respect of children, delight in her dogs, and love for her best friends. 
If you wish to donate in Judy Cooper's memory, please consider Juneau Animal Rescue.