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It was March 1964, my wife and I were living in Japan awaiting the birth of our first child. We had visited with Walley at the “Alaskan Embassy” he had created in Tokyo and he knew of our reason for being in Japan. It was a Sunday morning in Tokyo when the ‘big one’ struck Alaska. The English language paper, THe Maranuchi Times stated in bold headlines that Anchorage had been partially destroyed by a tidal wave.’I ran a few blocks to the press offices of the Army and Navy Newspaper headquarters and met Walley among the concerned Alaskans trying to find out the truth about the earthquakes devastation. Walley told me he was chartering a plane to fly back to Alaska and offered my wife Diana and I a free ride back home. Due the fact that Diana had just delivered our daughter, we were unable to accept his offer. He then volunteeered to look up our Alaskan family and let us know about them and their conditions after the quake. He was as good as his word and did indeed send us this information back to Tokyo. “YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, WALLEY HICKLE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Governor Hickel, you always told me you can read good people by looking in their eyes.

Governor Hickel once told me that as he and Ermalee were driving up the Alaska Highway people could find them by the trail of diapers they where throwing out the window…LOL