Tanya Birkeland

1954 - 2019

Alaska native Tanya Birkeland died April 29, 2019, at her home outside Fairbanks after a short battle with liver cancer.
Born on May 25, 1954, in Sitka to Walter Birkeland and Natasha Calvin, Tanya was a great-granddaughter of notable Father Andrew Kashevaroff and was proud of her Russian and Tlingit ancestry. Her father, Walter Birkeland, was a music educator in Alaska and Washington, and her mother gained a measure of notoriety for spearheading efforts to excavate an archaeological site on Baronof Island and for providing a number of artifacts for the Calvin/Kashevaroff Collection of Native artifacts at the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka.
She has two sisters in Alaska - Mary Purvis and Sonia Birkeland, of Sitka - and a half-sister, Kirsten Birkeland, of Portland, Oregon. She is survived by her longtime partner, Rich Driscoll, at their home in Fox.
Tanya studied at Western Washington University and earned a computer science degree from Colorado State University. She had a successful career as a software developer, working both for US West in Colorado and later in her career the Fairbanks North Star Borough. She returned to Alaska in the late 1980s, when she homesteaded a 40-acre site on the Kantishna River and became a fixture in the homestead community, becoming known as one of the few women to pilot the Kantishna, Nenana and Tanana rivers.
In addition to being a dedicated caretaker of family as they battled illness, Tanya was known for being extremely literate, funny and intelligent, as well as being an outstanding gourmet cook. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Fairbanks Medical Hospice Service.