William Ray "Bill" Heard

1933 - 2024

Draft Obituary Items for Bill Heard: started on February 7, 2018- Revised Feb. 2023

William (Bill) Ray Heard, passed away unexpectedly on May 22, 2024, living his life to the fullest to the very end. Over the past 50 Years Bill was a renowned and highly respected fisheries scientist involved in Alaska's fisheries, primarily related to salmon in the complex North Pacific Ocean ecosystem.

Bill was born on August 13, 1933 in a farm house 3 miles west of Sayre, Oklahoma to his loving parents William Lynn
and Lydia Ethyl Heard. He grew up in this rural farming-ranching community of western Oklahoma. His childhood involved attending public schools and growing to love nature and outdoor activities including learning about wildlife, fishing, hunting and athletic sports. As a 6-year old in the first grade one of Bill's classmates, Charlotte Faye Tracy, would eventually become his wife. During WW II most young men of age in this area were in military service. Sayre Schools held half day class during fall harvest times so students could work in the fields helping farmers bring in their crops. Bill earned enough in 5th and 6th grades harvesting cotton to buy a war bond.

In High School he was on football, basketball, and track teams and played cornet in the band. At home football ball games during pre-game warmup Bill and a couple others also in the band ran off the field into the stands in their football gear to help play the national anthem. He was elected President of his Senior High School class of 36 students and Charlotte Tracy was Class Secretary. By then these two had begun dating and as seniors were elected most popular boy and girl in school. During his senior year Sayre's football team, Bill played half-back or quarterback, won the State Championship. He also set a state record in the half-mile run leading to a track scholarship in college at Oklahoma State University (OSU}.

In college he enrolled in natural history classes leading to a BS Degree in Zoology. He was elected President of his Junior Class at the University and worked as a Naturalist for a summer job at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. At the beginning of his senior year at OSU Bill and Charlotte were married September 4, 1954 shortly after Charlotte had completed her RN Degree at the University of Oklahoma's School of Nursing. As caption of the Track Team during his senior year Bill set records in the half mile run, ran on world-class relay teams was elected President of the "O-Club", the elite letterman's club for OSU Athletics. After graduation he worked with Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Department doing fisheries research on reservoirs. In 1956, realizing the need for additional education, he entered a course of graduate studies leading to a MS Degree in Fisheries. During this period Charlotte worked as a nurse to help put him through graduate school as he worked part time as commercial fisherman on a reservoir owned by the University. In 1958 he took a summer job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Brooks Lake in Katmai National Monument on the Alaska Peninsula. After completing graduate studies, he took a job with the Fisheries Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and the family, now with three small children, Mike, Robin, and Mark, moved to Montgomery. This was an interesting and enjoyable period as he learned details of pond fish population dynamics and balance between largemouth bass and sunfishes.

In 1960 Bill was offered a permanent position in Alaska as research scientist to work at Brooks Lake the family moved to Juneau. They bought a house in the developing Mendenhaven subdivision when loop road was still unpaved. In November Bill with others of research staff moved to the newly finished Auke Bay Laboratory (ABL}. Bill conducted research on sockeye salmon at Brooks Lake and other fish/fs in Katmai Monument. Charlotte and children, over the next several years, spent much of the summer months at Brooks Lake that afforded a formative period for their children. Along with other ABL staff Bill underwent special scuba training that became an important research tool for studying fish and other animals in their underwater world. Bill took a transfer position in 1965 and moved the family to Fayeti:evile Arkansas to work in the National Reservoir Research Program. This move, partly due to Bill's earlier work on reservoirs and his active research using scuba. Although reservoir research offered many opportunities and challenges, the lure of Alaska, not just for Bill but the rest of the family, proved too much and when offered a chance he return to workABL.

New research was centered in Southeast Alaska at Little Port Walter (LPW) Marine Station on lower Baranof Island. Studies were on experimental intertidal pink salmon spawning channels and pink and coho salmon population dynamics in Sashin Creek. In early 1970s as Alaska began developing a new modern salmon hatchery program, LPW studies began shifting, partly due to an impending U.S-Canada Salmon Treaty into collaboration with Alaska Department of Fish and Game when research focused on coho and Chinook salmon enhancement. This research, lead to LPW hosting the first terminal area commercial fisheries harvesting hatchery coho salmon in Alaska. Over the next 42 years Bill continued working at ABL and LPW serving in different capacities as Project Leader or Program Manager for different research programs. He continued active participation in diving as part of the NOAA Diving Program including ABL's research on effects of underground nuclear testing on sub-tidal areas of Amchitka Island. In the last 10 years before retirement he was the oldest certified NOAA diver in the country and through his work in various organizations he logged over 1500 research dives.

Throughout his career at ABL his research focused principally on salmon where he authored or co-authored publications on all five North American species. Over a 61-year period from 1957 to 2018 he authored or co-authored 75 peer reviewed publications in scientific journals or books. He also authored or co-authored more than 80 other reports, documents or abstracts on a wide variety of topics. In addition to his research on salmon, he also published on other fishes as well as on birds and mammals. He actively participated on many technical committees and focused groups involved with Alaska, National, and international salmon issues. He was part of Governor Jay Hammond's Fishery Council developing policy for Alaska's salmon hatcheries. He served on North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) Committee on Scientific Research and Statistics that coordinated salmon science with Japan, Russia, Republic of Korea, Canada, and U.S. Bill was a member of Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) Technical Committees involving Pacific Salmon Treaty issues between U.S. and Canada and served on the U.S./Japan Natural Resources (UJNR) Aquaculture Panel, NOAA's Aquaculture Task Force, and the Alaska Mariculture Technical Group. Participating in these groups afforded him frequent opportunity for travel to most North Pacific rim countries with salmon populations and enabled him to establish lifelong friendships with colleagues and fisheries personnel in Canada, Japan, Russia, and the Republic of Korea.

He received frequent honors and awards including Outstanding Wildlife Society Graduate Student at OSU, Best Publication Awards at ABL, Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, Meritorious Service Award and Award for Fishery Excellence from American Fisheries Society, Chinook Enhancement Technology Award from Alaska Department of Fish and Game, NOAA Fisheries Employee of the Year Award and NOAA Fisheries Distinguished Career Award. He served as President of the Alaska Chapter American Fisheries Society and was an Affiliate Associate Professor University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Bill retired in 2012 after almost 53 years in Federal fisheries research.

Bill and Charlotte often enjoyed frequent travels together to many different countries and places both before and after he retired. Often their travels were with structured groups like Elderhostel/Road Scholar, Collette, or Oceanic Society. They often took birding trips to the Texas coast and birding or archaeological trips to Central American locations in Belize, Costa Rica, or Panama, and Mexican locations in Yuctan, Baha, and Vericruse. They also traveled to Europe, Ireland, and Japan. Throughout his life Bill remained an enthusiastic and dedicated student and supporter of the marvelous wonders of nature and natural history in all the various places where he lived, worked, or traveled.

Bill is survived by his dear, beloved wife Charlotte Tracy Heard, of 70 years, his three children: Mike Heard, Mark (Jana) Heard, both of Juneau and Robin (Phil) Peck, of Holderness, NH. His six grandchildren: Krista (Jake) Jacoby, Julie (Ryan) Herman, Justin (Erin) Heard, Stephanie Heard, all of Juneau and Johannah Peck, of Northfield, NH and Meredith Peck of Portland, ME. Also, his six great-grandchildren: Sophia and Audrey Jacoby, Kalon and Lincoln Herman, Parker Heard and Ashlyn Gates
A Celebration of Life Reception for Bill will be held on June 12, 2024 at the Chapel by the Lake, from 4 to 6 pm, with remarks and memories shared at 5.
I Lieu of flowers, please donate to the Juneau Audubon Society.