Richard Loren Powers

1941 - 2021

Richard Loren Powers passed away on Friday, October 22, 2021. The son of F.E. 'Gene' Powers and V. Almetta Powers, Dick was born in Council, Idaho as their third child on December 21, 1941, just two weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The family moved from McCall, Idaho to Salmon in 1944, when Dick was three years old.

Growing up in Salmon was an active life for Dick. His parents would regularly drop him off for a day of fishing on one of the many small streams in the area and then pick him up in the evening. He played both football and basketball in high school, but suffered the first of his many bone and joint injuries while playing basketball which had him in a leg cast for nearly a year. That didn't slow him down much. He completed the requirements to become an Eagle Scout and graduated from Salmon in 1960. After high school, Dick went to the University of Idaho in Moscow to study Forestry. He married his high school sweetheart, Stella Stout in 1961 and she joined him in Moscow. During his college years there were frequent hunting expeditions with friends and family back in Salmon, and an unguided float trip down the Middle Fork. Dick was elected to lead the Forestry Club during his senior year, and their son Rusty joined the family shortly before he graduated and took a job with the Forest Service in Ashland, Montana.

From Ashland, the family moved to Sula, Montana where Dick was an active member of the Lost Trail Ski Patrol and became good friends with many people in the Bitterroot valley. Their son, Mark joined the family while they lived in Sula, but shortly thereafter, Alaska started calling Dick. They moved to Juneau, Alaska in 1969 where Dick worked on the Chatham Ranger District and then as area manager in Yakutat. His work led him to a Master's degree in Public Administration on the management of Admiralty Island where he met many of the residents. The family also engaged in many boating, hunting, fishing, camping and hiking adventures in Alaska as well as back in Idaho and Montana.

In 1975, Dick and family took a big step and quit the Forest Service to purchase the general store in Angoon, Alaska, the only year round community on Admiralty Island. They lived above the store for several years before purchasing a large home nearby. In 1978, Dick started the lodge building for what has become Whalers Cove Sportfishing Lodge on the island of Killisnoo, near Angoon. In 1983, his first marriage ended and the store was sold. Dick threw himself into building Whalers Cove into a full time business. In 1994, Dick married Sharon Green Salzwedel and the two of them ran Whalers Cove Lodge and the house as Favorite Bay Inn B&B. They built a home in Sula to use during the winter when they were in the lower 48 to market the lodge.

Dick and Sharon sold the house in 2013, sold Whalers Cove to his son Mark in 2014 and retired to their Sula home while returning to Whalers Cove as a host to the guests. Dick and Sharon sold their Sula home in 2017 and moved back to Salmon. They were able to make one last trip to Whalers Cove in the summer of 2021.

Dick was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters Peggy Youngstrom and Jessie Powers, his first wife Stella, and his son Rusty.

He leaves his wife Sharon, son Mark (Kristine) Powers of Kalispell, Montana and Killisnoo, Alaska, brother Lyle (Lynda) Powers of Salmon, grandsons Chase and Isaac Powers, granddaughter Katie Foster, stepdaughter Sonya (Joe) Kiernan of Santa Cruz, California and their daughters Emily and Megan; and stepdaughter Angie Salzwedel-Kemp of Klamath Falls, Oregon and her children Zack, Riley, Caleb and Emma. He also leaves great granddaughter Alana Powers along with numerous nephews and nieces.

Stories and memories would be greatly appreciated. Please send them to Sharon Powers, PO Box 545, Salmon, Idaho 83467.